Killing Me Softly
by holmesfreak1412
Summary: [Now at The Hunger Games: Catching Fire AU] [Sasuke/Hinata] All he wanted was to spare her but when the repercussions after the Games had been beyond what Sasuke expected, he is no longer sure whether saving Hinata was the right thing to do after all.
1. The Beginning

**Title**: Killing Me Softly

**Author**: holmesfreak1412

**Fandom**: Naruto-The Hunger Games AU

**Pairing**: Uchiha Sasuke &amp; Hyuuga Hinata

**Genre**: Drama, Romance

**Rating**: T

**Summary**: They're killing her softly and yet he, who is safe and sound and the one spared from the arena is the one who feels like dying.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own either of the Naruto and The Hunger Games Franchise.

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**Killing Me Softly**

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**A Hunger Games AU**

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**_In penance for their uprising, each district shall offer up a male and female between the ages of twelve and eighteen at a public "reaping". These shall be delivered to the custody of the Capitol. And then transferred to a public arena, where they will fight to the death until a lone victor remains. Henceforth and forever more, this pageant shall be known as The Hunger Games."_**

**-Treaty of Treason**

**…****.**

**The Beginning**

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_Sasuke_

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**i. Reaping**

**"The reaping is a good opportunity for the Capitol to keep tabs on the population as well. Twelve- through eighteen-year-olds are herded into roped areas marked off by ages, the oldest in the front, the young ones, like Prim, toward the back."**

**―****Katniss Everdeen speaking about the reaping**

**"The time of the year I always dreaded. And seeing you in the same stage as I is when I realize that I can have more valid reasons than plain lethargy."**

**-Uchiha Sasuke, victor of the Sixty-Eight Hunger Games as he speaks with his tribute, Hinata.**

**…**

When Hyuuga Hanabi's name is called, there is a stunned silence. Quietude hanging heavily over the large gathering, their eyes wide from surprise and their lips set into a thin, contemplating line. The crowd holds their gasps. The spared line of eligible female potential tributes sighs in relief. The breeze flies by ominously, enshrouding the entirety of the Konoha Lumber district in a silence so awed you know that they are already smelling victory from the far future.

But it is not without a carefully veiled satisfaction. They are lucky this year.

Everybody knows of Hyuuga Hanabi. Everybody knows of how old she is. But nobody does anything about it. This is not the first time that a twelve-year old got reaped. This is not the first time a **female **twelve-year old got reaped. But with the utterance of this year's female tribute's name, there is but no cause for hopeless lamentation this time around. Everybody knows Hyuuga Hanabi—she is after all a household name amongst many of the academy trainers, the gem of the illustrious Hyuuga Clan. The scarily skilled mayor's daughter. The young prodigy. At twelve, she can throw knives and execute kills like nobody's business. At twelve, she can survive in the wild, chop logs, hunt with snares and climb trees. At twelve, she is already a natural-born killing machine with a Career Tribute's mindset.

With this, Sasuke finds himself realizing the reason why the trainers and the other victors are all smiling contentedly to themselves. At twelve, Hyuuga Hanabi could actually win. Like Uchiha Sasuke did, seven years ago.

He was twelve too when he cleverly electrocuted all of the remaining tributes in his arena, despite their inherent industry all but a far cry from that of anything that remotely concerned technology and intelligence. Observing a tree burnt by lightning had been but a scholarly diversion but in the end he did effectively utilize it anyway and made even the most murderous of the Gamemakers fall into their knees when he finally managed to tame their unruly thunder. He was made a legend back then. The young boy who was more than just a face and blunt force.

Before then, he wielded a chokuto and slit throats and stabbed allies and murdered cowering children that were older than him without mercy because if it's not them, it's him. Survival of the fittest. That is the evolution of the world, right? Fifteen days, he lasted in the arena. Seven years, he has been savoring the lifestyle being a victor gave. Ten lives he ended publicly just to live until today. His life he wants to end now too but is unfortunately no longer free to do so. It is possible. Hyuuga Hanabi is just like him. He could see it in her eyes. And she would be like him too when she wins and survives. The one wishing that he was the one who died.

Until… you find someone to actually live for.

Hanabi proudly walks towards where she is meant to, head high. But he can see that she herself doesn't want this. At least not yet. She still has many years ahead of her and she knows as well as everybody that most twelve-year olds don't live past the Bloodbath and see the sun rise to signal the next day of yet another slaughter.

But Hanabi is not most twelve-year olds.

And she is like him too… right?

He casts a glance towards where the seventeen-year olds stood. He couldn't see her. He wishes he could. He would have promised her that he would be performing as the best mentor Hanabi would need.

_Don't worry…_

The technicolored escort in eccentric animal fur cardigans and killer heels calls for volunteers among the still deathly silent audience, wondering aloud whether anyone who thought themselves more skilled than Hanabi is willing to take her place as this year's district sighting a few of the academy's trainees at the side—burly, young women who had practiced beating logs to a pulp but more mature eighteen-year olds who now seemed resigned to let the obviously more promising Hanabi to take the place—Sasuke doesn't expect anything. Hanabi is just like him, right? Konoha children know better than to possibly jeopardize their one chance to be spared from starvation for the next year. And when you see someone good enough onstage, you don't try to force yourself on the limelight and volunteer. Konoha wants their tributes to be winners because this is the best you can be.

He was the only one to ever make that mistake.

No, Hanabi is victor quality. And everybody knows that. She would win. That's because Sasuke would help her as best as he could. He didn't manage to save Neji from last year. So he would try his best for this girl. Because… Because… Because…

For… For… For…

That is until; a clear voice rings out amidst the deafening silence, cutting easily through the ice made by the district's whole resolve to let a little girl be their representative in a death pageant. Her tone questioning their ethics. The declaration sounding rather heroic.

From the first step of the stairs leading to the stage, he sees Hanabi's slightly teary eyes widen, as if from horrified recognition. And Sasuke himself doesn't want to believe it. But he knows that voice too… It is.. It is… It is… No… No… This couldn't be happening…

"I volunteer!" it proclaims a tad too hesitantly at first before somehow getting a form of resolution from the people's collective expression of askance. The speaker shouts with dignity this time and it strikes him like when a tribute aimed pebbles to ward him off from being her executioner. He finds himself wanting to laugh, cry, do anything hysterically.

"I volunteer as tribute!"

And just like that, a mouse of a seventeen-year old girl cuts her way through the crowd. She stumbles forward, indigo hair sticking out everywhere and her white, featureless eyes darting around in trembling fidgets. She is shaking. She looks like she's going to cry soon.

The crowd gasps, unbelieving that the words came out from this fearful girl who can't even stand straight and make sense of her previous actions. The trainers are livid. What have they taught them all these time in the academy? Hanabi is more than good enough for this! She can throw her axe like no one could! She's the one! And she-

Meanwhile, Sasuke feels like his world is ending. This couldn't be happening. Not to her. Not to them! Didn't he tell her just this morning that he would like her safe and sound and beautiful as ever once he comes back? He would have kept Hanabi safe no matter what anyway! That girl is made to be a winner! She would win! She would come home and her older sister wouldn't have to take her place in this battle of death. But here she is and if her unwavering stance is of any indication, she wouldn't back away anytime soon.

Hyuuga Hinata straightens herself up and much to all of Konoha's eternal shock, enunciates again. This time, with more determination than she previously played out. "I volunteer as tribute." is her lucid announcement, stance courageously unwavering.

And this is when Uchiha Sasuke knows that the girl who has kept his heart alive in the past seven years—the bestfriend he never knew he still would manage to acquire despite being worse than a criminal for killing children for a fucking television show- is ironically the one who would kill it. Softly. Softly. Softly…

**ii. Justice Building Goodbyes**

**"The Justice Building is a place in each district where official business is conducted and is presumably the seat of the regional government acting as a town hall. Children go to the Justice Building to sign up for tesserae. It is also where tributes are taken once they have been reaped for the Hunger Games. The tributes bid farewell to their loved ones before being taken to the Capitol."**

**-About the Justice Building (The Hunger Games Wiki)**

**"This is where I thought I left my heart back. Until it fluttered again in the arena."**

**—****Hyuuga Hinata, victor of the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games**

**…**

Uzumaki Naruto gets reaped a few minutes later and he shakes Hinata's hand.

Sasuke knows she would have blushed and stuttered and fainted at another time. But this is not the right time for that.

When Sasuke finds her in the waiting room, she is already sobbing, her pitiful misery reverberating around the room and it tears the heart that he doesn't know to still exist inside him into irreparable smithereens.

Hiashi has already come by then and has slapped her. Hard. Because she's being stupid and Hinata, we all know what you just did is suicide! You aren't supposed to go in the Games! You are not ready! You are not strong enough! You are weak! And this is the same man who had once told Hanabi many a time that murdering other children would be as easy as slitting a rooster's throat.

She did not think herself higher but Hanabi fared no better than her livid father From what Sasuke could see, what Hanabi is most upset on is the reality that Hinata didn't even regret any word that she has said in the reaping. And that the older sister she loves the most in the world didn't even have the audacity to promise that she would come back.

But Hinata still has regrets.

And hell, if she doesn't want to return home as badly as they all want her to as well.

"It hurts. This is killing me." She sniffles out on his shirt, her face buried on his chest as it instantly burrowed itself in once he came in and embraced her for dear life. Because that's what best friends do. Because that's what he wants to do so badly that it hurts. He wants to kiss her so bad. And it is killing him. Softly… softly.. softly… "It pains me that Naruto-kun might have to kill me in order to come home. He has to, right? His… family is waiting for him and Sakura-san might just finally accept him when he comes home a victor, right? And he really wants to be a hero. It's really bad. I feel really bad. I mean, I'm glad Hanabi is safe and because her name is already called, she wouldn't likely be reaped again. And once I die, she would be too afraid to volunteer again. But Naruto-kun… He might just kill me. And I don't want that. Not until I tell him what I feel…"

_That I love him._

And Hinata is never afraid to die for those she loves.

Tears come out from her eyes and she wails.

His arms tighten around her and he tells her, in a soft, soothing voice that he suspects is not from the bloodthirsty victor the Games made him to be but actually from the Uchiha Sasuke who loves an oblivious woman for so long and feels himself dying every second she thinks she would. He puts his lips on her ear, breath ghosting because he is just about to tell her about something important.

_That I love you too._

And Uchiha Sasuke does everything for those he loves.

"Naruto wouldn't kill you." He assures her and he kisses the top of her head because that's as far as him being her platonic niisan could allow him. He took that place ever since he failed to save Neji last year. She didn't blame him. She never did. He tries not to stare at her lips, those red temptations he can't seem to look away from. He fights the urge to just claim her now that he might lose her forever. He draws her close instead because this just feels so damn right.. "Naruto wouldn't kill you. He wouldn't. He never will so don't worry, okay?" He kisses her hair again. And again. And again. And again. She is letting him because she is hugging him even closer than before. "I'd make sure of it."

"It wouldn't be painful then?" she asks. When you talk of your death so casually like it is just a trek to the woods, you know there is something wrong with you already. "Sasuke-kun I'd prefer to have it be—"

"Hush. Listen to me. For the last time, I wouldn't let Naruto kill you." He sounds exasperated. He says this with finality. And he is still yet to pull away from her strong, deathly hold. "Nor would I let anyone else try."

And she doesn't dare argue because she hears a desparate promise—a declaration even—made only for her.

**iii. Train Ride**

**"Most of Panem's citizens are not authorized to travel by train unless they are reaped for the Hunger Games, as travel between the districts is forbidden except for officially sanctioned duties."**

**-About the Train Ride (The Hunger Games Wiki)**

**"I think that was where I realized that I could never kill you. And that perhaps, this is going to be the last time I board this but hell will come before I let that be the truth for you. You're coming home Hinata. And that's because you will make me an eternal promise, believe it."**

**-Last Day in the Arena. Uzumaki Naruto to Hyuuga Hinata.**

The train ride to the Capitol—to death, as Hinata whispers glumly to herself, much to Sasuke's inner despair— theoretically lasts for three long days, and that's already them running an unbelievable two hundred fifty miles an hour. By ordinary standards- like the steam train the few in the Merchant side of Konoha can still afford to embark, the trip would have taken two weeks at least. And by ship, a month. Oftentimes, Sasuke finds himself wondering whether some of the more pessimistic souls who were forcefully carted in the Games by sheer misfortune had at one point wished that things were more primitive. That it would take more than those measly, fast, short three days for them to reach their destination. Advancement could be a foe and in the case of a dystopian world that couldn't allow the majority the advantageous benefit of being born to the 22nd century of knowledge and power, that just hits the mark. The Train Ride is a dreadful affair, a bitter prelude to the Game of Death that would invariably ensue once they are finally delivered. They know they wouldn't arrive safely. Tributes and victors alike never do. That established fact—for it is already proven roughly seventy-four times already—is what that is that kills you softly in the meantime.

He knows what they all say.

They will never get off this train.

When he was in the Sixty-eight Hunger Games Uchiha Sasuke had never felt any of these —what was he but a cocky kid who didn't even have an ounce of an idea that in the Hunger Games, there never is a winner? Conceit had been a predominant emotion then. He knew he could do it. His mentor made sure about that too. And when he really did it and saw exactly what he shall be afterwards, there was no backing out. Guilt isn't even the most foremost thing. They were going to kill him too so it was only right to beat them to that as. But there was fear, that smoldering feeling that threatens to incinerate your chest into bits and yet never could kill you quite enough. More often than not, he always found it wishing that he was the one who died, impaled by swords and mauled by the hawk mutations. He wishes it wasn't him who won. He wishes he wasn't that arrogant, ignorant twelve-year old boy who foolishly thought he could best his elder brother by volunteering. He wishes he had never met Hinata… And that resolve alone, was what he is afraid of the most.

The burnt husk of his childhood home… His parents' dead body… Itachi drowning amongst the mysteries of the Nakano river… Hanabi getting reaped… Hinata volunteering… Naruto having better chances… The cannon booms… Hinata's corpse carted by the hovercraft…

This is his life as a victor. This is bound to happen.

Experiencing luxury in the Hunger Games is by no means extraordinary. The more resigned Tributes genuinely appreciate it as most of them have probably starved all their lives and maybe death wouldn't be so bad if you get to eat, be dressed and live as someone you only dreamed to be even for a little while. Some of the more rebellious souls resent the pretentious Capitol for it. Others are just already too much of a walking dead to preoccupy themselves with such triviality. Stereotypes they may be, but nevertheless they give him what to expect each year. That's not to say they are used to it though. Victors never would be. Sasuke, bitter, pragmatic, Sasuke, certainly isn't.

Beautifying Tributes with all these efforts is only a blatant allusion to fattening sheep before the lethal trip to the butchery, such an inside joke between victors that they know would never make any tribute laugh. But nevertheless Uzumaki Naruto is currently enjoying it, completely ignoring a disdainful Sasuke, an amused Kurenai and a taciturn Hinata while he slurps a bowl of deliciously-made ramen in one go. All this while noisily munching a few desserts here and there, a taste of the appetizer and a spoonful of the entree with no apparent regard of any such thing as order or manners. He invites everyone else to devour the array of catering with him. They all decline.

The prep talk is probably the only thing that made train ride rather worthwhile. It is tradition and even if you are but an inebriated mentor who could care less whether your Tributes die, one has to do it in order to fulfill your lifelong obligation of saving your district from the annual draught. The moment you won you already are their hero. The moment you emerged a victor, you already are their slave. It is here that the Tributes have their stats of survival determined early on and their weakness be distinguished in order to eradicate it as much as they can. In his Games, Sasuke has had the advantage of being an enough looker at twelve to win over the more pedophiliac sponsors with a smile and a touch of daredevil deadliness. It helped in the arena , especially when the unavoidable thirst in the tropics they have for a battlefield is making him delirious. Neji had had several sponsors last year too but unfortunately, the GameMakers had to kill him off for a reason they never did disclose.

Naruto can hunt, make snares and evade pursuers like he's made for it. Reportedly, he's also quite the axe-wielder who the Peacekeepers somewhat had no way of convicting as an illegal logger, as tenacious as he proved to be. He is Konoha's urchin, a destitute, dirty, vagrant boy from the Seams who stole anything that is of use in the Merchant's Square, anything to feed his family for the night. He was an orphan, his parents executed early in his infancy by the Peacekeepers because they smuggled too much firewood in their home and the only family he could ever call were other kids and irregulars who found themselves in the same shoes as him. But he is a survivor, despite never having been trained in the Academy and otherwise universally hated. And Konoha knows of that. Naruto actually had that chance to win too and had he been paired with Hanabi, they would have made such a particularly intimidating Career tandem.

Kurenai takes him in because she sort of won her own Games by being smart and if there was anything that made Naruto vaguely flawed as a tribute, it is his impetuousness. Sasuke is left with Hinata because as far as his fellow mentor could tell, he wouldn't let anyone else handle the safety of who most likely is the most important person to him.

Hinata has never trained in her life, dainty hands meant only to press flowers and not to choke out the living daylights out of another human being. The farthest she got into the logging operation is probably the trimming of weeds at the backyard of their mansion, hands so gentle in her craft that she could never make even the most menacing of shovels a lethal weapon. She is the darling of the main house, the precious princess of the Hyuuga Clan that both Hanabi and Neji was born to protect. One who possessed the innocence Sasuke realizes that what has drawn him to her in the first place. She is never made for the Hunger Games and perhaps that is what the entire district is disappointed with and the reason why her father has slapped her when he should be tearfully saying his farewells.

The reason why Sasuke who thinks the world is too much grimly realizes that beautiful things like her indeed never lasts in their ugly, ugly world.

Hinata could heal though and somehow that makes Kurenai's inference more believable. Naruto and Hinata would make a good enough team. Her ointment to his brawl. Her calming personality to his hotheaded demeanor. Hinata would be quiet when he's being far from stealthy. Hinata would want to escape when he's dense enough to try to bring it on. Theoretically, they are the perfect balance. "Who knows…" the red-eyed mentor tells him at the end of the day when both tributes are already snug asleep inside their bunks. Kurenai's crimson orbs are fixed on the digital clock, counting some dreadful hours. "… maybe they would be the last two in the arena and Konoha would have the best chances…"

You mean Naruto would have the best chances?

"Maybe Konoha would have a victor this year."

And she is not talking about Hinata. Not at all.

"That boy… He is a survivor…"

What about Hinata though?

He doesn't say the thought out loud because from what he can already see about Hinata, that's something he definitely can't deny. She is never of winner quality. And those that are not ready for the Games, never come back whole.

So his only chance is to make those bastards audience see what he has seen.

"I'm confident." He responds, taking a quick swig from his drink. Kurenai's red orbs are trained at him carefully, reading his soul. "I'm confident that I can make them like her."

Hinata is attractive enough. And with a few designs, Sasuke knows that they would love her. He just have to let her live long enough and when the time comes… when the time comes… when the time comes…

"You seriously don't want to repeat history, don't you?" Kurenai tries in vain to make sense of his selfish resolve. "I mean, Sasuke-kun—"

"I know what I am doing." He cuts in and there is determination in his voice that not even the promise of a miserable future can contend with. "I want my charge to live."

He just has to decide whether he would let her live long enough to see the Hell he is doomed to live for herself.

The Train Ride, is all but Charon's ferry because whatever angle you try to peruse it with, you know you never would come home safely. Because in the Games, there never is a winner.

And he sees how Hinata knows this because when in the third day he reminded her to stay alive, she laughs and it is broken and hell, she already sounds like how he did when he was informed on how he should live from now on when everything else he loves has perished. "Tell me that again Sasuke-kun…" she breathes in slowly and his hold in her involuntarily tightens. He just wants to cry. "Tell me that again when the odds are finally on my favor. Tell me that again when I don't have to die. Tell me that again when the person I love is not there to kill me anytime. Tell me that again when I can actually do something already. Tell me-"

"Hinata." He mutters and she stops to listen. She always does. "I'm your mentor. I can do something."

"You can't even save Neji-niisan." She whispers but she succeeds on keeping the clear accusation her words are inflected with away from her sullen, defeated tone. "What makes me any different?"

_That I love you, _he wants to scream but that is something she is never ready to hear. Not now. Not now. Not now. Not now that Naruto is within earshot of what she herself wants to confess. "That you can actually win." He consoles instead, as if that is something obvious enough. "And you know there's hell to pay if I didn't make sure of that. Neji wouldn't like it and you know I made a promise."

"But I don't want to win." She counters but it is hollow. Half-hearted. Her eyes are closed and he realizes in that leakage of tears that Hinata thinks too that nobody is ever the winner. The one who would win in this is the true loser, things she probably learned from the rebellious Neji who saw more than the naivete Sasuke once had.. She doesn't say that aloud though because it's him she is talking to. Hinata just prefers to die and Sasuke wonders whether she just doesn't care how much she meant to him as long as she is spared from the pain she must have realized already that he is agonizing from.

She breaks away from his embrace. He lets her. And somehow for the second time in this hellish week, he knows this wouldn't be the last time that she would slink away.

…

**(TBC)**


	2. The Preparations

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**The Preparations**

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_Naruto_

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**iv. Capitol**

**"Remember who the real enemy is."**

―**Haymitch Abernathy, referring to the Capitol.**

"**They're ugly."**

**\- Uzumaki Naruto to Hyuuga Hinata, upon arrival**

Once upon a time, there had been relentless rain in the place now known as Capitol, once casted off from mainstream and named appropriately as Amegakure. Showers so unstoppable nobody even had an idea how a rainbow should look like, let alone visualize the mythical pot of gold that reputedly lies at the end of those bow of colors. The people in there, obscured as they were with the darkness of the cumulus didn't know the promised hope, disdainfully resentful only of what they thought was a curse to have befallen them. When wars broke out, they were its center, inadvertently thrown as they were with the bigger nations' conflict that they did not really care about. They were angry. They hated and that was what made them a threat. Abhorrence was their weapon and for almost a century, it continues to be effective.

A huge revolution later and Amegakure became the Capitol, successfully veiling their smoldering hatred with fancy suits and pretext of democratic governance. When the rains of yesterday were something nobody could stop, their enormity and reign in the present is now something no one can go against to. Today and it is already seventy four years going, the Capitol is awake twenty hours each day. They have good idea what a rainbow looks like now and that is probably the reason why all their citizens are colored that way with apparent disregard of regular aesthetics.

They are happy. They are feared. They are hated. They eliminate all threats. And they try to simmer down the districts' own abhorrence so as not to overshadow their own.

They are respected. And that what authority is to them.

They are the great Capitol. The one that should be hailed. The one that hosts the well-rewarding Hunger Games.

Naruto just thinks that they are the ugliest. Because seriously, what kind of people take drugs so that they can keep themselves conscious enough for senseless partying? In a way, they are like zombies, kept alive by the rest of normalcy's misery and feeding off with other people's death. They take in the Hunger Games like it is the best time of the year, worshipping its victor for the time being and totally casting off the rest that shed blood for people who took it for kicks. Uzumaki Naruto is not scared of them though. He never was, even as a tribute now. But the world can sure use the space without them.

So even though they arrived at about three in the morning when no sensible person in Konoha would ever be caught loitering around their heavily patrolled streets, he is not surprised to see that there is still a multitude of absurdly-hued rainbows welcoming them, faces caked with a yellowish tan that if they aren't so many of them being lively and jumpy all in one place, would easily pass off as that of a sick man's. They wave jovially as they alight from the just whooshing train, hooting at the sight of Hinata who blushes, greeting Kurenai cordially who nods, whistles promiscuously at Sasuke who feigns an exultant smirk and sizes Naruto up because he is grinning confidently when his partner looks like she prefers to be anywhere else in the world than here.

Like she prefers to die.

Naruto wonders whether they are already betting their cash out initially about who is to be killed first in the arena and when exactly it would happen.

He clenches his fist.

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**v. Dressing Up**

"**What must it be like, I wonder, to live in a world where food appears at the press of a button? How would I spend the hours I now commit to combing the woods for sustenance if it were so easy to come by? What do they do, all day, these people in the Capitol, besides decorating their bodies and waiting around for a new shipment of tributes to rill in and die for their entertainment?" **

**\- Katniss Everdeen, referring to the bustle of life in the Capitol**

"**When I looked at myself in the mirror, I realized why you do what you do. Why you seem so different in TV. Why I don't like watching you kiss other girls. It's because when I saw myself, I know that it isn't me. And I realized it wasn't you the people saw either. Those alters were from the Capitol. That's not the real us. I don't want them to be."**

**\- Hyuuga Hinata to Uchiha Sasuke, during the victory tour. **

Naruto has never interacted with Hinata in the past, even though they go in the same school, belong to the same year, talk the same people, listen to the same baloney lessons that told you garbage about hailing the Capitol and the Treaty of Treason and how justified killing twenty-three children on television is every year. Just because some aeons ago, their ancestors had made a mistake of not working hard enough to win their uprising.

Even though he always invariably appeared in her home's back door to deal with the mayor for shrimps. Even though Naruto sincerely thinks that she is really nice, for a spoiled Merchant kid anyway. Hinata and him never talked. But he can tell that the problem is not in her side of things. Kiba really likes her and for a savage Seam kid who bared sharp fangs, wielded sharp claws and was too wild for his own good, that is saying something. Others from the underprivileged enjoy seeing her around town, thinking it such a pleasure to speak with someone as sweet and good-natured as her. Naruto never talked to Hinata. He never felt like he deserves to.

She is after all, the epitome of what purity should be, something that being born next to no one in this world didn't, couldn't make him to be. She is the person everybody wanted to be and whose muffled but striking enough presence could make one feel inadequate. She is who Sakura secretly dreamed up of being, when after a long day came her usual string of complaints about how unfair the world is for even setting up some political dynasty for mayoralty amongst the districts when we all know that the authority doesn't get hairsbreadth with that of the Capitol's—and yet can't deny that Hinata-san is really nice and I wonder if I could be so, if I were in her place. She is the one who inspired Naruto to go on and on and fight, and fight and fight even though she probably didn't even realize she was doing so. She is Konoha's darling, so dazzling that Naruto always felt unholy on stepping the same ground as her blessed feet do.

After all, how is handing a burnt bread to a starving, half-dead boy amidst a rainy day any significant to such a charitable soul as she? She probably doesn't even remember that time. But unknowingly, she did save his life and pushed him to go on and fight for a more productive one. Hinata doesn't know it but Naruto wants to protect her with all of him. He owed her his life. Because that is who he is, dammit. And the Capitol better think again if they attempt to steal his identity as they are obviously hellbent on taking away his life.

They are tributes now.

One way or another, he would have to tell her.

_Thank you. _

_For being for there back then. _

So he makes a deal with Uchiha Sasuke.

"I'll protect your Hinata in the Games." Naruto offers, as the two of them are left alone in the dressing room. Naruto nurses the feeling that the mentor came here for the same proposition he is currently making. His inquisitive blue eyes meet with his dark, stoic ones and with a smirk, he rejoices that he has indeed read him right. Uchiha Sasuke's sleepless nights in the train ride, along with the fact that he is always just about to knock on Hinata's door definitely meant something. The guy's one of them love struck fools the Capitol enjoys fucking around with. "Just take care of my friends. Make sure they eat. You're rich, so you can do that. And oh, tell Sakura-chan that I love her too. Last time we saw each other, there are a lot of things to do and so little time. "

There is a suspicious glint in the man's eyes but Naruto can tell that he is at least considering the offer. He should. He loves her. Even though, Naruto clenches his fist, he probably doesn't deserve to.

In the Capitol, Uchiha Sasuke has quite the reputation, able to go at least four lovers in one visit. He is the Capitol's sex symbol, their standard of what real and natural beauty is. His tales of promiscuity are everywhere, as notorious as Faust himself. But in their district, he is as reclusive as a hermit, preferring to stay inside the confines of the victor's village and later, as he realizes in the company of Hinata. The death of his family after his victory is still the district mystery. An infatuated Sakura called him Charasuke at one point. He is a Capitol man. And they are evil. But Naruto can tell that Sasuke is not.

He is just protecting the only one left that he loves.

"Why would I believe you?" he drawls out with some menace, hands placed on his hips in an attempt to intimidate him. Naruto has long since been immune to that though. This man is no peacekeeper and even those weird masked blokes with the whip and electrocutes can't force him to pee in his pants. He knows of Uchiha Sasuke. And he can sense from his tight jaw and curled fists that he is more broken than he lets on.

He can sense the man just wants to cry.

"You don't have to." Naruto responds with a shrug. He keeps the eye contact, unfathomable pits blue colliding with the sad hue of onyx. "But trust me, I don't think I will emerge alive in this Games but if I could, I want to protect her in the meantime. I have a debt to pay and I have to make the most of this opportunity even if it means my death."

And he is surprised to hear the truth in his voice.

"And if I couldn't protect Hinata, I promise I would make it fast. I wouldn't let those other sadists do it, believe it. You prefer that don't you?" He smiles at him, quasi-hopefully. "Or perhaps, you'd rather she live?"

"Frankly, I don't care much about you."

"Figures. I don't want to win either. " Naruto chortles then it is all serious again. "I protect her from the enemies inside. You promise me to protect her from the real ones, okay? They're the more dangerous in the bunch. Them, I mean." And he gestures towards the Capitol, with all the bright lights, and the parties and the money, things they wouldn't have if not for this unjust suppression of the other districts. "They are the real enemy."

Sasuke promises. Naruto realizes that he must be lying. He doesn't believe he can do it himself.

"Believe it." Are his parting words, before he leaves the room to meet up with Hinata.

He knows well what to expect.

…

**vi. Tribute Parade**

"**The chariot rides were very important because it was a chance for the tributes to make an impression on the citizens of the Capitol. Most tributes, to make a good impression, would smile and wave and appear friendly. This is also the first time the Capitol gets to see the tributes, so a very good impression is important in order to receive sponsors." **

**-The Hunger Games wiki, about the Tribute Parade/Chariot Ride**

"**And when they held hands, I know that there's an angle that needs exploring. Sasuke won't like it. But I have to do this. For the alliance. For the rebels. I just have to put the idea in their heads."**

**-Yuuhi Kurenai, thinking to herself that the world now needs a dose of star-crossed lovers. **

**.**

The girl who joins him by the waiting chariot doesn't look like Hinata, with all the ludicrous colors and the glowing body. But he himself doesn't look like Naruto as well so even amidst the layers of absurd makeup and ridiculous dress that this little, fragile, vulnerable girl dons, he still recognizes her.

"Yo Hinata!" He greets, jumping up from his chore of feeding their horses a dew of the sugar cubes rationed by one of the Avoxes. Poor servants who got their tongues cut for talking too much. "Looking good." He lies.

To his surprise, Hinata doesn't blush. And with a start he realizes that the girl didn't find the left-handed compliment at all amusing.

As expected, she is more concerned with the horses than she is with herself when she wonders aloud about the "fire suit" that the stylists make them wear to draw attention. They are from the Fire Country and consequently, the District of the Hidden Leaves so they think it just is appropriate for them to dress up as trees that are so hot and passionate with life that they are burning up. Brown and green suits with fire effects. The stylists all gushed that it would be the latest fashion around after this show. Naruto couldn't help but think to himself that he prefer his clothes tattered and vagrant if being a tribute is what it meant to be elegant.

In a more optimistic way though, it reminds Naruto of the story they use to smuggle around the Seam, when Peacekeepers are out of earshot and they don't have any fuel for the gas lamp to at least brighten up the dark, monotonous nights. How many times has he heard of a man named Moses who freed his people from the iron grip of their conqueror? How many instances is there mentioned a miraculously burning tree that gave hope to those imprisoned by fate and unjust men who call themselves kings? How many times has he heard of a Man called God, who would save the world when they need him to?

How many times has he asked himself as a child: where is that God?

He looks at himself in the mirror. The man before him is far from God.

But Hinata… Hinata who is loved by everyone by Konoha. Hinata, who nobody wants to see dead. Hinata, who he is eternally indebted to. Hinata, who is nice, a gem, someone unfit to live in this world because she's too good for this rotten excuse they have for a place they habit in. Hinata, who would be like a beautiful flower in a dismal graveyard. Hinata who is with him now, a tribute. Hinata who Sasuke would pay him for to protect. Hinata is not God. But she is as close to an Angel as anyone in this world would ever get.

"Safety is just a word." He reassures her, taking her hand and squeezing her. He is satisfied to hear her squeak in embarrassment because the old Hinata is always the best Hinata. And the most beautiful. Hinata is not a Capitol woman. Neither is she a tribute. She is hope. She is an angel. And Naruto knows that no matter what happens, he'd make her win, believe it! There are so many like him everywhere, free souls who wants nothing more but freedom. But there could only be one Hinata, a pleasant reminder of how the world would be when they are finally in liberty. "You can fly without it."

Like a mockingjay.

No longer a caged bird. Someone he heard that Neji has always wanted to be.

To fly and grow wings.

It no longer matters how much blood it would require to glue those together.

And so he holds her hand for the rest of the parade, raising it up because that what they are. An alliance.

Their bodies are glowing, as they hold each other. They are the trees on fire, messengers from the God of Freedom.

"Thank you."

The ones the Rebels have been looking for.

…

**vii. Training Centre **

"**No fighting. You have plenty of time to do that in the arena."**

**-Atala to the tributes. **

"**This is just the beginning."**

**-Uchiha Sasuke, as the doors to the training center close. **

In the seventy-four-year bloody history of the Hunger Games, Kirigakure is the district that got the highest stats. A victor for every five games is a big deal after all and for a fearsome district that invariably belongs to the top five in every game; they are a huge threat to anyone's ambition. The districts and the Capitol alike has since learned to watch out for Kirigakure's yearly pair of ruthless and murderous representatives. The Mist takes their Hunger Games seriously. With an academy for killing and their own survival games held to determine the tributes for that year, they are bound to be dangerous. The Mist only sends out their best and more often than not, it proves to be challenging for the rest.

The downside to that stereotype is that Kirigakure tributes tend to be the least good-looking and charming of the bunch. Confidence and the sheer willingness to kill are not always the most appealing and Capitol fools are such a shallow mass that they cannot see potential for what it is and only preferring the one that they can stare at all day long. This is probably what Sasuke and Kurenai means when they told them that training scores are but immaterial and the three-day training pre-games is not yet the turning point that would determine their chances.

Sasuke won the games by smiling.

Kurenai won hers by being interesting enough.

"While in the training centre, you should just learn what quick is there to learn. Tie knots. Make fire. Set the most basic of traps. You wouldn't learn how to throw a kunai accurately in three days and if by chance you already are skilled, it's best that you don't show off." Sasuke explains this whilst escorting Konoha's pair of tributes towards the basement that houses the infamous training centre. They haven't shared the elevator yet with any of the competitors and for that Naruto is relieved. "We make our impressions during the Interviews. Remember that this is a television show. When you make people like you, it is more likely that the Gamemakers will keep you alive in a long time. Keeps a show going. You would matter the most if you significantly raise the ratings."

The Capitol is in control.

The Capitol watches.

Kurenai, who once duped the viewers into thinking that she is a meat to eat who does not have the wicked ability with poisons and the audacity to kill all those in alliance with her, adds. "In the training centre, you don't really need to show off all. Just show enough and you can easily be in the Career pack. You are from Konoha. That immediately puts you to a pigeonhole."

It's better to surprise them.

The red-eyed woman looks at Hinata. "And she's Neji's cousin."

Reputation helps as well.

The girl winces.

Sasuke thereby briskly picks on the topic. "Both Neji and his district partner Tenten made it into the top five last year. From what I can see, they expect the both of you to excel just as much as they did. They have already showed your backgrounds, the reaping and interviewed your peers. Children of the Seam tend to have some unique skills set. Tenten and her marksmanship proved that. And Hinata" he then directs his attention towards the female, the mentor's eyes unreadable. "You volunteered. And Neji was remarkable last year. They seem to think you have some trick up your sleeves."

She flinches.

She volunteered.

The angle they are pursuing is that she is better than Hanabi.

Naruto frowns.

Kurenai is serious and a bit sad when she drawls further. "For now…" she tells them, patting both of their heads as she finally ushers them towards the menacing double doors that opened to the rest of their adversaries. "… this expectation of theirs would keep you alive."

So stay so.

This year's set is particularly capable, Naruto observes sizing the rest of his opponents up. Kirigakure looks threatening as usual. But you have to watch out for Kumo and Suna's as well. Iwa is a thing to think about. But they can easily use that to their advantage.

The Hunger Games is just a television show.

And in order to be likeable, you just have to be the type to be a main character in a story.

All of this, Naruto realizes.

What more does these bastards like, he thinks to himself as he helps Hinata make fire. He makes sure to run his fingers on her bare arms. He makes sure that all the rest as well as the cameras see it. What more does these bastards like but a little bit of teenage romance?

Later that night, news of Konoha's star-crossed lovers is a buzz all around the nation. Naruto knows that mission survival is a success.

The two of them are going to be this year's Games' main attraction.

**(TBC)**

**I updated. No surprises there because I know what to write already and how to proceed with it. To be honest, I didn't expect much response for this fic because it is essentially a crossover but you guys have been nice and because of that, I will continue this. Next chapter shall feature the training scores, the briefing, the interviews and of course, the Cornucopia Bloodbath in Hinata's point of view. But yes, you guessed. We will have Naruto and Hinata pretend to be star-crossed lovers in the arena. With a twist. **

**Please review. Because me thinks that I need all the encouragement that I can get. **


	3. The Admission

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Part Three

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**The Admission**

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Hinata

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**vii. Training Scores**

"**Most tributes desire the highest scores possible. The Career Tributes generally score between eight and ten. Sometimes, tributes aspire for a low training score so that they appear weak, but then catch the rest of the tributes off guard."**

**-The Hunger Games Wiki, about the Training Scores**

"**I believe that life should never be relegated into mere numbers. But I have to admit that when I first saw my birth certificate is the time when I realized that my existence amounts to that of a downward spiral."**

**-Hyuuga Hinata, speaking about her district registration number. 012612**

Hinata got a rating of four.

Although the flash of such an insignificant number could not help but disappoint her, Hinata knows she should not be surprised. What could she ever expect anyway? In the Private Training Session with the GameMakers all she did was stumble around stations helplessly and fuss about weapons she still didn't have an idea how to use. She threw kunais. It missed, barely grazing the dummy's arm. No surprises there. She fired an arrow. It was far from the bullseye. The GameMakers weren't even paying much attention but even they could tell, after the not-so-impressive aftermath as she walked briskly away in humiliation, that she was meant to die as soon as the BloodBath.

Hanabi would have retaliated right away by shooting one of her arrows right at the mouth of the roast pig and just a head away from the Head GameMaker. She would have been impressive, able to catch their attention with the skills that made her worthy as a volunteer tribute. She would have scored ten, because she deserves it. She would have been the star of the BloodBath. Hanabi would have been victor. But Hinata, who knows she could never be Hanabi, only wants to spare her beloved younger sister from the life she is aware she would lead once she got blood in her hands.

She does not want Hanabi to wish that she was the one who died instead.

Hinata doesn't think that she would win these Games.

Neji did not.

Even if by miracle she comes home a victor, she still wouldn't.

She has seen enough of Sasuke to realize that.

What better reprieve is there, but the freedom to die in your own free will? She knows she is being selfish. But for once, she wants to be the older sister Hanabi should have, she wants to be the person she prefers to be and she wants to protect the one she loves. Hinata is not afraid to die. That is because in their world, she knows she would. One way or another.

In their world, the best way to die is to die for someone you love.

She has an idea why.

"Training scores don't matter. I told you that, didn't I?" Sasuke says, voice laced with desperation when he corners her in her room that same night that the Hunger Games timeless hosts Deidara and Sasori announced with only a few numbers that Hinata is not someone you should be betting on. That it would be a waste of money. She wonders how low she is in the betting ranks now that she proved to be the tribute with the lowest scores. That she has the less skill of all, which is the painful truth. Even after resolving to die, Hinata could not help but feel the inferiority complex creeping to take over her again. Hanabi has warned her of this. "You know well that Kurenai got a score of three in her Games." Sasuke mentions in addition, as though that afterthought can offer some sort of relief. "You shouldn't take it seriously."

"But she is pretending. There is a difference. Kurenai-sensei actually has skill Sasuke-kun, something I lack." She squirms against his looming frame, feeling trapped. The man's smoldering look does nothing to help either. He has her trapped against the wall and the worst thing is that, Hinata has no idea how to escape. What more when you have twenty-three other people wanting to murder you? "Kurenai-sensei actually can kill. I know about the poisons. The darts. She can… win. And she did."

Sasuke does not relent. "Which is the exactly point. Over the years, the Capitol has learned not to count out the tributes that got the lowest scores. Particularly the older ones. They don't like to be duped but at the same time, they are thrilled by the fact that you are trying to conceal yourself so for now, you are still high on their betting lists. You are still a suspicious character. Tenten got low last year but—"

"She didn't win."

Sasuke sighs, aggravated. "She did not win true… but being on top five is a high enough achievement for someone who got a score of five."

"I don't get it Sasuke-kun. I just don't." She whispers softly, closing her eyes as she tries to keep the tears from falling. They are rebellious though. She can feel Sasuke's hold from her loosen slightly and gradually as the space between the wall and her trembling body becomes more breathable. She does not look at him. She could not. "How can you say that it's an achievement when she still died in the end?"

She can see it as if it was yesterday. The avalanche coming to them. Neji and Tenten running away. And then the fated silence as the snowmageddon heavily splashed itself into the overhang they thought they can hide from. A sheet of white. And then two cannons boomed. Neji and Tenten's face showed in the skies. They were dead.

No questions about who did it. The Capitol got some trick like that whenever the Games got rather monotonous for their taste. Five days and all the tributes were already in hiding. When they felt like nobody is dying, they would kill the tributes in a freak disaster, each getting more creative as the years pass in a blur. But most of the time, such events are only orchestrated to flush the tribute out of his hide and face the others in a death match. Neji and Tenten's deaths felt more like an assassination more than anything. Sasuke wouldn't tell her but Hinata could see it. Neji said something that the Capitol didn't like and for that they killed him. Tenten was just the casualty who was unfortunate enough to be the witness. So they killed her too.

"How can you say… that I am going to win?"

Because Hinata knows she never would.

She is Neji's cousin, as Kurenai pointed out. They hate him. So they would kill her too.

Hanabi getting reaped is not an accident after all. Cursed all those who thought the Reaping is but a game of misfortune. The higher ups of the Capitol want to see another white-eyed person die. They chose Hanabi. Hinata couldn't allow that.

One way or another…

"How can you say that…" she murmurs and she knows it is broken and she knows he can hear it and she knows he cares and she knows she doesn't. She hates Sasuke for giving her empty promises. She hates herself for still hoping. "How you can say that when you can't even save Neji-niisan?"

Those words were what she said in the train ride. She can tell that it rings some nostalgic bells.

Hinata tries to slip away but Sasuke's hold to her does not budge.

And then in a shock that is so electrifying she only felt it coming when it did, she feels Sasuke's lips pressed on hers

..

**ix. Sponsors**

**"Some water, a knife or even matches can mean the difference between life and death. And those things only come from sponsors. And to get sponsors, you have to make people like you."**

―**Haymitch Abernathy to Katniss Everdeen**

"**They like me already so it shouldn't be too hard to ask them to like Hinata too."**

**-Uchiha Sasuke**

I love you.

Those words ring in her ears and stay there in a cacophony of the deafening silence. She lies sprawled on her comfy bed, fingers grazing slightly to where she still feels the swollen abrasion that is caused by Sasuke's insistent demeanor in making out. They have not gone so far. He has kissed her. She kissed back. And there certainly were no clothes tossed away. But the intimacy of what they did in the hallway alone made Hinata feel horribly exposed. Even now, she still couldn't suppress the blush from creeping on her. This… this new development frustrates her because it doesn't make sense. Her beating heart… the sadness in Sasuke's eyes… the intensity of their kiss. She was sure they were just friends… She was sure she was ready… She was sure that she has already left her heart behind with the grief-stricken Hanabi… until now.

Is it wrong? She asks herself, sinking further to the blankets. The only thing that she likes in the Capitol so far. Is it wrong that I want more of him now that I know that he has always wanted me?

I love you.

And you're mine.

I wouldn't let anyone take what's mine ever again.

Hinata knows that his family died shortly after he was crowned victor but she never would have imagined…

Sasuke has already left for somewhere, leaving her mulling over her own misery while she wonders whether he kisses those Capitol women the way he just kissed her. Tells them he loves them like he did to her. In the past three days, he was always off to someplace during midnights, coming back only in the mornings looking like he has not gotten sleep, thoroughly disheveled. Naruto whistled that it was just the "teme" being "on it" again. Kurenai seemed somber as she forlornly munched her breakfast. Hinata had many a time stared at the red marks on his necks he was trying desperately to hide, feeling that uncomfortable stirring in her gut that she didn't understand until now.

Until now.

It was instinct.

Sasuke has been doing these- vanishing at late nights, partying with the Capitol, going home with some rich woman, refusing the gifts they lavish him afterwards because "Baby, I have something better to ask you. You see my tribute, Hinata…"—all because he is trying his hardest to give her a favor in the only way that he knows how to.

Everything is for her.

"I have managed to secure some sponsors." He always said every time Kurenai perfunctorily asked about how "things", whatever they were, went. "Chances are they would support our tributes. I convinced them."

And it took a lot of work.

"I just have to give them the phony smile and the cock-and-bull-endorsement and—"

He is selling his body.

"We have the best chances in sponsorship I think."

He is trying to keep her alive in the only way he knows how.

In tears, Hinata ponders about whether she should be grateful.

…

**x. Briefing**

**"After your first Games, I thought the whole romance was an act on your part. We all expected you'd continue that strategy. But it wasn't until Peeta hit the force field and nearly died that I knew I'd misjudged you. That you do love him. I'm not saying in what way. Maybe you don't know yourself. But anyone paying attention could see how much you care about him,"**

**-Finnick Odair to Katniss Everdeen**

"**Is it so wrong? Is it so wrong when it just stopped feeling like an act? And when I actually looked forward to both of us winning? i don't know what to say, Hinata. But I think—"**

**-Uzumaki Naruto to Hyuuga Hinata, before the final showdown**

The escort comes by to teach her about the art of walking in high heels—some ridiculously impractical footwear that could only be a weapon if you decide that an assailant's head is as dead as a doornail to be hammered—and speaking with enough grace that you could be mistaken into someone with refined education. Chikushudo insists that Deidara likes his interviewees to be fun and snarky and enjoyable and all things you wouldn't ever be when you know you might die the next day. The weird young woman with the piercings and orange hair advises that she should make jokes, be a braggart and if everything else fails, be seductive. Sasuke tells her that she should just be herself, because that is good enough for the Capitol who would surely appreciate a dose of Hyuuga innocence after Neji's stoicism last year. Naruto's comedic approach is natural to conversations so no problems. But Kurenai, quietly plotting and scheming Kurenai thinks better and otherwise.

"I think it's an imperative if you two go on with the lovers thing that the Capitol seems to be expecting." She suggests, watching both Naruto and Hinata take their ramp walking lessons, both of which very much struggling. "You have gotten pretty popular with the viewers, especially after they showed the clip where Naruto was always around you in the training centre instead of prospecting with the rest of the Careers. And let's not forget about the hand-holding in the Opening Ceremony. They think you are some sort of star-crossed lovers from all of those erm, 'evidences'. "

Hinata is struck surprised by the revelations, her heart in her throat. "They really think that?" she mutters, thoroughly dumbstruck. Naruto and her? Lovers? Sure, he has been breathing persistently on her neck in the past few days but being district partners and all, that is only natural. She has seen others do it. But come to think of it, he has really been touching her a lot too. Has she been too preoccupied with the smell of death to blush like she thought she would? Has she completely lost hope over Naruto? Or has she been too busy with these newfound feelings about Sasuke that she cannot help but think that nothing else is of importance?

She watches Naruto shrug to himself, obviously nonplussed as though he expects it.

As though he wants them to think that.

"We have to give them a show, right? And what's a show without anything to 'ship?" he says, whilst absentmindedly fixing his tie. His eyes avoid hers, choosing to focus on Kurenai and her thoughtful responses instead. "Hinata and I are already a team anyway. It'd be easy. And I rather like her. We are the perfect match, believe it!"

Naruto and his bluntness. Hinata and her heartache. She feels her chest constrict, overwhelmed by the surge of emotion upon hearing what they have to do. What hurts more but confessing a love to a person who already has established that it is going to be an act?

What hurts more than confessing a love to a person who you know is about to die?

Suddenly, her respect for Sasuke goes up a higher notch.

"Pretending to be in love could easily backfire to us." Is Sasuke's surmise as he sits at the corner, wine untouched and his frown very much visible for his motion to be branded as impersonally objective. He does not like this. "It has never been tried before. They may not fall for it, for all we know."

Kurenai is however, more assertive. "This is the Capitol we are talking about Sasuke-kun." The female victor reasons, standing up to help Naruto with his tie. "They are the shallowest people in the planet. Hm? Think of this: they can even delude themselves that you love them! Anything new you throw at them, they would easily eat it up in face value. Lover boy and girl-next-door. They're going to be the main attraction indeed!"

Kurenai has indeed, become a Capitol woman.

She knows how they think.

And she still is an expert in fooling them.

"And…" She turns her attention to Hinata, eyebrows cocked and her crimson eyes prying, reading, scrutinizing. Hinata couldn't help but think that Kurenai has more to take from this agenda than making their district attractive enough to harvest money from the sponsors. Than saving them. Her eyes are still on her and Hinata also could not help but think that this is infinitely much better than what Sasuke has to do in order for him to save her.

It is time to do her thing.

"… it's not like you have to pretend to be really in love with him, right?" Kurenai is without discretion whatsoever when she drawls out. "That's because you already are, right?"

Both Naruto and Sasuke stiffen.

One didn't see it coming. The other didn't want to hear it acknowledged.

So Hinata does what she can.

She nods.

She would do it.

…

**xi. Interviews**

"**The main purpose of the interviews is to show the rest of the Capitol a little about each tribute to help them choose their favorite."**

**\- The Hunger Games Wiki, about the Interviews**

"**Winners should be a bang. The Games is too much of an explosion to ask for less. Hmmm."**

**-Deidara, TV host to The Hunger Games**

Improvisation is a must when you are a tribute, whether or not you are already fighting off hunger in the arena or facing a formidable enemy in a death match at the final day. Or even when you are just waving in the chariot amidst Sasori's impersonal commentary. Or just when you are sitting before the nosy Deidara in attempts to be the Capitol's definition of "fun". The thing is that, as much as Kurenai believes that the Capitol citizens are safely to be perceived as people with brains as shallow as a puddle and perception as dense as the ocean floor, the authority of such dimwits is still something to be differentiated. This, is what Sasuke reminds her when they are left alone for the mentor-to-tribute briefing, sometime when her bestfriend should be telling her what angle she should be pursuing.

The Capitol is in control.

Going along the flow of the river is a must in every game as well.

He does not tell her to be cute. He does not ask her to be funny. Nor does he try to make her appear dangerous. He no longer says some useless trash about being herself either. Nor does he discourage her anymore of the star-crossed lovers charade that might even put them into the bad side of this year's game. He just tells her… to improvise because he has the feeling that she would need it.

"The Capitol always has something up in their sleeves." He says, watching her twirl around herself with the dress that is supposed to glow when she spun around like a ballerina. Sasuke himself looks handsomely impressive in his slightly unbuttoned shirt and seemingly bedraggled form, something that would drive those Capitol women into self-induced coma. But Hinata, who had seen him on his worst, thinks that she prefers him in his dark colors of mourning and just serene and quiet by her side in a world where he is not a victor and she is no tribute.

He resumes. "The Capitol loves contradiction. And what else would be that if they don't make someone back home the ideal antagonist? You started the story rolling as soon as the first day of training. I think that's enough time for the flamingos out there to piece a story and make your tale about the star-crossed lovers more intriguing. It could be both a favor and a way to discredit you. Don't be surprised if we see Hiashi in some VTR. They like to interview the parents about such things, you see and not to mention the love rivals. The point is that you have to take advantage of what they throw at you. This is a game. And you have to play it."

Sasuke's motto after all, has always been use before being used.

But unfortunately for Hinata, that is not as easy as evading a rattlesnake.

"They would be testing you that way. To see whether you are the real deal. So you have to be ready. Hinata? You have to be ready, okay? You have to be."

She only nods.

But the conviction is there.

"Be careful Hinata."

So when they showed Sakura having sex with Naruto back in their last moments in the Justice Building live on TV to her, she is ready. Naruto was surprised that they have installed cameras in the Justice Building but quickly cross referencing from what Sasuke has already hinted, she hardly is.

Something like this is what the Capitol has always been known to do.

Hinata idly wonders why they chose not to show her and Sasuke in the most intimate position back then.

Deidara asking her whether Naruto had cheated…

The crowd wondering whether this is the makings of a love triangle…

Deidara inquiring whether who really is the third party…

The people thinking of Hinata as the bad, bad, bad Seducer…

All through this, Hinata remains unperturbed.

She realizes that this is probably the improvisation Sasuke has been talking about.

And so it easy for her to be sexy and coaxing and innocent at the same time when she suggestively remarks. "I always have this crush on Naruto-kun. Since I was twelve actually."

She stares at Naruto and Sakura's contorted forms and she knows. The moans… The slapping of skin. Sakura's eyes closed as tears fell, blood oozing from her lips in her attempts to stifle the strangled, pleasured gasp. Naruto would make a good courtesan, the back of her mind tells her as she recalls Sasuke and his interviews back then. Naruto is one hell of a lover. Naruto is like Sasuke. Naruto is just like Sasuke. Naruto would be like Sasuke.

She smiles, licking her lips. Because she already knows what to do. "And is it any wonder why I love Naruto-kun this much? I mean if this is how he compensates? Is it any wonder really?"

The Capitol goes wild.

Victor-Hinata is born.

The Games change you.

…

**xii. Strategy**

"**He did you a favor."**

**-Haymitch Abernathy to Katniss Everdeen, about Peeta Mellark's interview**

"**Unexpectedly, when I saw the look in her eyes, I realized that Naruto is after all not the Mockingjay. It's her. Hinata. Who Neji has always wanted to see once again. Who I could see now is someone Naruto would die for. Who I could see Sasuke would protect. And who I could see would give hope to the rest as the girl who loved and was loved."**

**-Yuuhi Kurenai, speaking to the Rebels from the Land of Iron**

Both Naruto and Sasuke is not at all pleased with what she said. Same as how a while ago went. One didn't see it coming. The other expected, but still could not believe it.

But she tells them that if anything, she was just doing them a favor.

Kurenai agrees. "Both of you are the older tributes in these Games." She reminds them, her impersonal drone knocking some sense to the already violently bickering pair of testosterones in the elevator. They listen to her with rapt attention, knowing better now that Kurenai's words always and invariably hold some significant weight. "And I agree now that they might not believe the teenager romance thing I would have preferred to act since you guys are already almost eighteen. These audience has the inclination for the mature. And what better intrigue is there but sex itself? There have been tributes caught by camera doing it but none has been openly suggestive of it until now. You promised a lot. In the Games, it doesn't matter if you fulfill it but the anticipation might keep you alive for the first several days. That is good improvisation from your part, Hinata. I commend you for that."

Sasuke's frown is visible even when Hinata's back is turned. "But that interview gave her a bad image." He notes, sounding obviously upset. "It only gave this good-for-nothing a favor. Only him! Who bangs a slut on their last day anyway? Who does he want to be? Faust? And to think this star-crossed lovers thing is his idea!"

"What did you say teme?!"

"You heard it."

"You!"

"A bad impression is always the best impression." Kurenai calmly reiterates, ignoring the aggression suffocating the little air that is there is the elevators. She addresses Hinata with a leveled regard, eyes serious. "Because either way it would not bore against you whether you prove it to them or you turn out far from what they expected. I suggest you just go with it. You never know. Being a bitch when you're not can actually save your life. The Capitol likes their tributes being great actors, you see."

"But—"

"Told you—"

"I understand." It is her conviction the quiets them all.

Hinata is not strong. Hinata is not a fighter. Hinata is not a killer.

But in a world where children are killed in a regular basis, you have to be a great liar to survive every time.

She knows she has to dupe them.

If the Capitol remembers her as one with superficial issues before she dies, Hanabi would be infinitely safer.

Or so she wants to think.

…

**xiii Feelings**

"**She crept up on me."**

**-Finnick Odair, speaking about loving Annie Cresta**

"**You only realize who you really are for when you are about to lose that person. That's what I realized when I was in the Justice Building with Naruto. I never knew it. I loved him. I still do. Hinata, I have so many things to say and so little time. You know, it really pained me when I saw him with you but I think that's just his way of telling me that when the time comes, I should tell Hinata-san not to waste her time any longer and say what she has to say. You never told Naruto that you loved him right? Please don't make another mistake like that."**

**-Haruno Sakura to Hyuuga Hinata, after the Games. **

That night, Hinata comes knocking at Sasuke's door.

"I want to feel what is there left to feel." She states as she undresses in front of him. "I want to feel what Sakura did. I want to know why you are so confident in saving me. I know what you do and I want to see what they for. I want to know why you say you love me. I want to feel loved for once,"

"Are you sure that this is what you want?" He sounds breathless, blissfully going past the implication that this… this… this is not about him.

It is about her.

"This is what you want too, right?" She replies back, crawling closer. Her voice is getting softer but from how her body still responds, even her subconscious is aware that there is no turning back. "I don't matter. But to answer your question, it is. I have right to be selfish too, right?"

She straddles him, feels his increasing heartbeat. Smells the acrid smell of sweat dripping in his heaving frame. Discovers why every woman dreamed and paid substantially for a single night in his chiseled, toned arms.

But she does not let him kiss her this time.

She does not want her heart to beat in its fastest when it already lost the right to.

(TBC)

Ehhhh? If you have read Love Wheel, it would be easy to catch the reference with the Justice Building cameras. And that I think I have an odd writing style for this one. And the quotes from the beginning of each section are actually solid foreshadowing to what will come later. So rest assured despite what it may sound that I know exactly where I am heading.

I'm really glad that people read this. I didn't expect much because not many people are fans of multi-chaptered crossovers but since some people are waiting for updates, I just got conformed and decided I like it too. Thank you guys for the support and I hope you review as well. I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Next chapter features the beginning stages of the Games (Bloodbath, First day, some info about the Careers, the reactions etc). All in Sasuke's POV so watch out for that (as I'll be alternating)

Please review.


	4. The Games

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Part Four

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The Games

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_Sasuke_

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**xiv. District Token**

"**They let you wear one thing from your District in the arena. One thing to remind you home. Will you wear this?" **

**-Madge Undersee to Katniss Everdeen. **

"**Sasuke gave you that because you are an Uchiha in his eyes. Heh. I'm still better than the teme then. I am giving you this because you are a victor in my eyes now, believe it." **

**-Uzumaki Naruto to Hyuuga Hinata**

Sasuke has realized, when he helped shed Hinata's clothing off the other night that she has not carried with her, anything from back home.

"Where is Neji's mockingjay pin?" he had asked, trying not to rummage on the mess of clothing balled on their knees. Hinata has always treated her cousin's only physical legacy with deference and he is a bit perturbed to find that it is not anywhere underneath her vest as he presumed this whole time. "Did you leave it in your room?"

He was answered by a shrug. "It's with Hanabi. It's safer there. You never know what happens in the arena." She whispered this, her tone grim. Hinata's eyes dimmed in resignation."And I don't think it deserves to see yet another Hunger Games. It is the only thing that we—Hanabi has from Niisan. I wouldn't want my sister to lose that too."

End of story.

Naruto's district token is something that surprises everyone congregated around the dining table as they share their last breakfast before the Games. Eyes wide in astonishment, both mentors easily recognize the simple design of the elegantly glinting crystal pendant whose notorious hundred-year history has already seen two Hunger Games. Been dripped in so much blood. Has witnessed so much undeserved death. Been seen prominently in Victory Tours. If sold, there would three mountains containing gold mines waiting for you. If not, there still is the notoriety.

Everyone in Konoha would know what it is. Everyone in Konoha would also wonder. The Capitol itself seems to have yet another reason to go wild.

How did Naruto, scoundrel orphan child of the filthy Seam, managed to get his hands on the legendary lucky charm that already saw three of Konoha's greatest victors win?

"But that is Hashirama-sama's charm!" Kurenai ejaculates this exact thought in utter amazement, crimson eyes looking over in awe as Naruto dangles the strings like he would brandish an enticement to a salivating dog. Light languidly refracts through the antique gem, casting an ethereal glow as Sasuke finds himself drawn to the very lure of superstition that embodies the ancient object.

It is the so-called victor's charm after all.

This Hashirama won the first ever Hunger Games. Dangling it before a giant fox mutation's eyes in an attempt of hypnotism did the trick. Taming and taking advantage of it was the key. In the arena, Senju Hashirama had been virtually invincible. The Gamemakers didn't have a chance to deter him. He was unstoppable. Thus began Konoha's reign as a Career district…

The three others who inherited the ownership of the same charm over the passing decades had also won their own Games. No exceptions. Tobirama survived by being the best swimmer. Nawaki was a great escape artist, though he did die all too soon afterwards before enjoying the rewards of his victory. Tsunade was phenomenal with her blunt force and the fact that hers had been the shortest Hunger Games ever. A retired mentor herself, she was the latest out of those three other Senjus to win and that was some thirty years ago. A bit miffed by this development, Sasuke questions the Seam rascal whether he is related to the now extinct victor-quality lineage in any way.

Senjus always win.

And if Naruto is destined to win, that only means…

Kurenai concurs that if he was, he would be able to gather more supporters than he already has. Popularity among thaw sponsors is a priority, provided that they survive the BloodBath that is. Kurenai is a foremost publicity stunt expert. She asks him to explain.

Naruto does, clarifying that he in fact, is no Senju. "I got this when I ran an errand for Tsunade baa-chan like hmmm…. months ago. She visited me in the Justice Building as well. Told me that this would keep me safe for some reason. And forced me to take this as a District Token since I am but a dirty Seam boy and I have nothing else anyway. " The blond then furrows his brows in askance , their undisguised interest now belatedly apparent to him. "Why? Is there anything special about it?" he asks. Kurenai sighs and tells him.

If the old had Tsunade gave him that…

Then she believes that Konoha will be hosting the victory ball this year.

And it is not about Hinata…

"Sweet." Naruto responds at the explanation, once the whole thing about the unreliable (Sasuke likes to think) statistics is over with. Sasuke begrudgingly gives the guy credit for being considerate enough not to scream enthusiastically about his higher chances with the ever enigmatic fate. From his seventh bowl of ramen, he glances up at Hinata, smiles with all of his teeth. Which Hinata acknowledges. Sasuke wonders why they seem so suddenly comfortable with each other now. And then he remembers that she did leave after they finished… "What about yours Hinata?"

Hinata shakes her head gravely. "I have none." She confesses, eyes quite solemn. "I think it's better not to have one actually."

It almost seems like…

Naruto remarks that it is a pity. Because anything from their district would have kept them _sane._

Hinata only murmurs that she does not want to smell a home that she might not have a chance to return to.

The atmosphere shifts to its heaviest.

Sasuke clenches his fist.

Later, he corners her by the door, gives her something, kisses her lips forcefully and relents when she harshly pushes him away.

Hinata asks him why in the world did he give her the Uchiha Fan necklace.

"Because any Uchiha wins." He says, smirking as he kisses her—the forehead this time, which she allows. One last time before hell. "And after last night, you already are an Uchiha."

Naruto is not the only one with the lucky charm.

Naruto is not the only one who has a home to come back to.

Naruto is not the only one who has someone to closely relate to.

Hinata is Sasuke's.

He finally made love to someone. He didn't just fuck her. And that is what matters.

"I'm betting on you."

He is not about to let her go.

The elevators rise. Hinata enters. The Hovercraft collects them. The Games begin.

Sasuke only wishes that the odds will be on his favor again this time.

**xv. Countdown**

"**May the odds be ever in your favor." **

**-The Capitol**

"**I don't even know why I ran away when I told myself I am already willing to die. Guess my body just moved on its own and that I really don't want to die just yet. Thank you Naruto-kun."**

**-Hyuuga Hinata, on the victory interview. **

This, he thinks to himself, is the worst goodbye in the history of goodbyes.

How can you tell someone who clearly prefers to, not to die?

The clock is ticking.

How can the Gods be this cruel?

Sasuke sits by the console, watching with bated breath as Sasori counts down into the inevitable bloodshed. Kurenai is beside him, eyes trained in rapt attention to the camera feed that focuses specifically on her tribute. Inquiries about sponsorship come forth. The prices of the essentials are pretty low for now but both know, by experience that the price skyrockets as the flames get hotter.

A single matchstick can cause ten thousand ryo at the most crucial moments. But there is a reason why Sasuke won. The sponsors know well he can pay them back.

Naruto's chest heaves but he looks alert and ready enough to keep his promise. On Sasuke's monitor is Hinata looking too small in her fitting green flak jacket that has Konoha's spiral symbols embossed for a distinguishable identity. She looks scared. Glances at Naruto fearfully, who shakes his head and tilts it towards the direction leading away from the Cornucopia and deep towards the unfathomable forestry. Looks down to her feet, apprehensively-curled toes too close to the self-destructive mines for Sasuke's comfort. Stares at the large, menacing structure before them. And then the clock ticks down to the last ten seconds.

Ten. Hanabi-chan, if you're reading this, I am pretty certain it's because I have died. I don't want to. But it couldn't be helped, I guess.

Nine. Neji-niisan misses me so much I guess.

Eight. Look at me, Hanabi.

Seven. Think through things. Then think about it again, okay?

Six. I actually don't like the Capitol that much. Naruto-kun tells me that they are the ugliest, you know. I kind of agree. And it isn't because it's Naruto-kun or anything like that. He's a nice guy. I hope you'll get to know him once he comes home.

Five. Or am I assuming too much? Don't ever come here anyway, okay?

Four. Because I know now that victors never win. I kind of don't want that life for Naruto-kun, you know but he still has home and I believe in him. Sasuke-kun too.

Three. Thank Sasuke-kun when he gives this to you okay? Don't ever cry, okay? Neesan is still watching.

Two. Though I hope it never would come to this. I wanted to live as well you know, even though sometimes I feel like I don't deserve to.

One. Something explodes. Far from Hinata at least. He could not care less. But he tucks the letter inside his pocket anyway, concentrates.

How can you tell someone not to cry?

It is the shortest ten seconds in his life. His own Games cannot even begin to compare. And it is killing him. Softly. Softly. Softly…

How can you feel like dying without being dead?

**xvi. Bloodbath**

"**Tributes seem to always die in the Bloodbath. The Gamemakers probably set it up for optimal entertainment value and quick deaths at the beginning of the Games to keep the audience interested." **

**-The Hunger Games Wiki about the Cornucopia Bloodbath**

"**I can't believe we're going through this again."**

**-Uchiha Sasuke, during the Quarter Quell **

The first kill occurs fifty seven nanoseconds before the countdown ends. The quickest in the history of the Hunger Games.

The male Kiri Tribute's corpse is hardly recognizable; his once hulking, muscular, intimidating frame blown into nothing but charred remains as the mines around the pedestal ignites the isolated explosion that ultimately kills this Games' biggest threat.

From the ruins emerges a miniature metal ball, rolling slowly away from the fading conflagration, blackish soot and slight burns the extent of its damage as it bounces against impact. Almost automatically, a slow-motioned reception is featured on every monitor. Sasori counting down to two. A tribute's arm swinging. The ball taking the path of its wicked aim. It hitting the Kiri tribute's ramp. The motion sensors getting awry, blinking an angry red. And the mines that were supposed to keep tributes from getting an unfair head start detonate all at once.

Another flash of the perpetrator and Sasuke recognizes it as the district token of the boy from the Land of Iron. From the satisfied smirk flitting momentarily on the boy's face, the ball's direction is no accident. One down. And it is supposedly the big boss.

The Capitol has no choice but to credit this Games' first death to the rather audacious cheater.

One.

And the gong clangs.

Let the Games' begin.

Hinata runs away from the Cornucopia, as did half of the other competitors, not at all hesitating as their minds advice them to flee and avoid the fight that most of them have no chances of winning. Even the prize of useful supplies and the security of well-sharpened weapons do nothing to reverse their tracks, the possession of such things but an afterthought against the essence of survival. She doesn't trip to her feet, thankfully. The adrenaline is doing its job well. She runs away with the sole intention of living to Naruto's expectations. Or so Sasuke cannot help but see as for a moment, she looks back at the bloodshed…

And leaves a message underneath a tree trunk that only Konoha lumberjacks would understand.

I am just yonder.

Meet me.

She runs once more. Faster.

Back in the Cornucopia, Naruto's inventory of supplies consists of a holster of throwing knives, a canister of smoke bombs, a water tumbler, a few meters of rope and two pieces of nutri bar, all of which safely tucked in an orange backpack which he did not even bother to coat with camouflage. He was also the one who speared the boy from Iron to death, delivering the justice the Capitol thinks that the Cheater deserves. It was necessary anyway. Sasuke understands that Naruto is about to be the second kill in this Games if the treacherous boy had come any closer.

The second kill is made four minutes and eight seconds after the Countdown. The GameMakers has to repeat the video several times, in slow, magnified and even enhanced versions before another was made, five minutes later.

There are several reasons why Konoha is a career district.

Naruto is showing why.

When you kill the right person in the Games, you are bound to be the instant favorite.

But is killing ever right?

Naruto runs, avoids the other Careers, sees the message, runs some more.

Only six tributes were killed in the BloodBath. The fewest in twenty years.

This indeed, Sasuke thinks as Naruto gets closer and closer to where Hinata waits. This indeed will be such a record breaking Games.

He is unsure whether that is the best thing for Hinata right now.

**xvii. Arena**

"**The arena could be anything. Five years ago, it was a burning desert."**

**-Atala**

"**You know Tenten, they could kill us anytime. That is our fate. The moment we are reaped, we never were the district's tributes. We never were Konoha's. We are the Capitol's tribute. And I'd rather die crushed in that mountain than be an offering to the false God those people are worshipping." **

**\- Hyuuga Neji to Tenten, before their deaths. **

Sasuke's arena had vaguely resembled a tropical island—a picturesque beach in the west, sandy ground or deep further, a mushy mess for a terrain, several coconuts all around and even a beautiful sunset was added to the mix. If it weren't for monkey mutations, the nightly fog poisoning, the highly perilous thunderstorms and of course, the other murderous contestants, he would have thought he was on a dream vacation. Sasuke spent his whole time in the arena half-naked, smiling as he killed tributes with a chokuto a sponsor sent—the most expensive gift ever paid for and consequently, the highest price he had to pay for as well. They didn't care that he was only twelve, cheering him on as he killed one after another. Sasuke, on the other hand, just forgot that he was supposed to be. The important thing for him was that, at least, he was old enough.

Hinata and Naruto's arena for this year is in several ways almost the exact facsimile of Konoha's forest. The foliage is thick, with trees towering in impossible heights that only those in the lumber industry wouldn't be rendered into feeling insignificant amidst the majestic scenery. Mockingjays tweet, free as it soars. Toads croak, wary of an intruder. Leafs fall in remembrance of autumn's dismal air. Some of the loathed jabberjays peck on trunks. The Konoha tributes are evidently the ones with the most advantage in this venue. Hinata climbs up so high on a tree that not even Artemis can pierce her from below. Naruto effortlessly crosses the river.

In the next four hours, nobody dies. Eighteen tributes remain. The most in twenty years. But as Naruto searches for the tracks that Hinata might have made, messages she might have left, the Capitol is left amused. It is the Star-Crossed Lovers! Hashtagged as #TheSearch. The Gamemakers meanwhile do nothing. They wait.

Naruto finds another message, not at all realizing that it is same one from hours ago. It seems that the guy is not at all the smartest tool in the shed after all.

"Remember that the key for your act is for you to stay together." Kurenai had preached, as a final briefing before the Hovercraft descended for them. Sasuke had nodded uncommitantly, agreeing but not quite having a heart to say that aloud. Beside him, Hinata stayed impassive, white eyes concentrating instead on the hovering vehicle. Naruto was all ears as usual. "Staying together is staying alive."

"Your promise." He reminded Naruto. The idiot only smiled, gave him a thumbs up. "Yours too." He quipped and joked about Sasuke not minding to feed more mouths as long as he could still kiss one. The mentor wondered how the guy could see through him so uncannily.

The reunion is being unnecessarily postponed, complains the Capitol people from the social media as words after words of dissatisfaction stream down the web some hours later. We want them to meet already! This Games is already so boring without some action. Why not throw Naruto a fireball and make him run towards where Hinata is anyway?

"They need to reunite now." remarks Kurenai, as she frantically sorts through the sponsor accounts that might come handy later. Nimble fingers fly in lightning speed over the keyboard, her monitor displaying live images of Hinata and Naruto side by side as one waits and the other searches. Kurenai had been Sasuke's mentor years ago as well. He wonders if she was this busy with his unprecedented popularity. "The GameMakers are not the most patient people, you know."

Sasuke agrees. Because he knows that the longer that Hinata is alone and defenseless in the arena, the higher the chances that he wouldn't have someone receiving the gifts that he has prepared for her after countless nights of fucking the ugliest people.

So he helps Naruto in the only way he knows how.

The descent of the parachute startles Naruto. It glides away from him, swinging in the air as if taunting him. He should have been suspicious and he is. But he is enchanted enough to follow what might be a treasure inside. Chasing it, he stumbles, slides and trips but he is determined. Those blue eyes never falter, choosing to look ahead rather than stake a watchout for anything to be wary of. A few trudges later and he is already a step below Hinata's tree. The girl calls for him, soft voice resonated by the mockingjays. Naruto smiles in relief as he scales up with ease towards her.

Trees are their element. Even the most sheltered of Konoha's citizens knows how to climb one and trees in Konoha are the tallest in the world. If anything, it almost seems like this Games is made for them after all…

That even Hinata is proving to be someone you should never count out is reassuring.

Naruto crawls. Hinata inchs closer. And it is all so romantic.

Their lips meet when they are close enough to the other and as planned, the act once again recommences.

Hinata does not push Naruto away like she did Sasuke this morning.

Sasuke turns his head away from the sight.

The rest of the world does not.

…

**xviii. Payment**

"**It takes ten times as long to put yourself back together as it does to fall apart." **

**\- Finnick Odair**

"**Now I understand why neesan and Sasuke chose not to remove that scar. And why Naruto inflicted it. You never looked beautiful without it I think."**

**\- Hyuuga Hanabi to Hyuuga Hinata, during the Justice Building Goodbyes for the Quarter Quell. **

Sasuke spends the rest of the first night in a Capitol woman's arms, because in order for Hinata to live, he has to.

Sasuke does not want to ponder how old the woman is. But past the ridiculous green hair and unhealthily yellow, pasty skin, the woman is actually quite pretty, with the elegantly-carved contours of her face that Sasuke has no doubt that she has paid for with ten times the amount of money that she spent to be in his company tonight. Hazel eyes widen as her too perfect body writhes beneath his, too smooth and impossibly toned legs circling his hips as he instinctively bucks forward. Too soft hands trailing across his spine. Too beautiful lips nipping and kissing along his jawline. He takes whatever pleasure he can get from the act, moving as rehearsed and sucking where it feels good. This woman pays well but Hinata had been nothing like this last night.

Her hands were calloused, rough and tested by the manual labor she did behind the management of their pharmaceuticals. Scars decorated her skin as they presented the evidence of her life as merely the oppressed—her body imperfect, her face too red, her stature rather petite. Her eyes leaked tears when he entered her, even though he did try to be gentle as he slipped himself in. Her lips refused to caress his. "Don't kiss me." She did insist. As of yet, Hinata had not known how to work her hands in order to give him the carnal pleasure he longed to take from her. Instead, Hinata had worked to the unconscious intent of taking everything from him, as she finally gave him a taste of what life would be if he worked hard enough. Sasuke is willing too. He would gladly fuck a hundred Capitol women over and over. He would gladly go through a thousand unwanted orgasms. He would gladly surrender himself to this world. If that only meant that he could make love _with_ her once more.

Hinata had been beautiful underneath him.

And this woman—this ugly, repulsive, sadomasochistic woman—who paid him to make the sex hurt—all for a promise that Hinata would have a decent dinner in the next several nights that they will remove the food supply in the arena—this woman, this rich woman who has the money to keep Hinata alive, could not even compare.

When they finish and Sasuke is preparing to leave—his tributes might be waking up any moment after all and who knows if the GameMakers are indeed dumb enough to launch the fireball?—he reminds the woman that the clock is ticking and it is in her best interest to drop in the sponsorship for his tributes now that the Games are on their ripest stage because he'd be pretty busy with his duties tonight as well...

"Sure." The woman drones, doll like features immaculate and not a single hair askew. A nonexistent (perhaps they are green?) eyebrow rises fractionally. She lights up a cigarette. Nicotine-tinged smoke condensates between them. Sasuke eyes her warily. The Capitol accent is thick and grating when she speaks again. "But the most I can buy for them is just a box of matches. A container of steak would be too much of a gamble. I think I'm not satisfied yet Sasuke-kuuuuun. Why boy? Even I can feel that your heart is not in it."

No.

"I have a condition. Come over to mama tonight, 'kay Sasuke-kuuuuun?" she purrs, expression lewd as she shamelessly rubs her naked body before him. "Make me happy tonight and I might reconsider sending a bow and arrow for Naruto-kuuuuuun to use and kick ass. Surely you are not too busy with your duties now? I'd like to help Naruto-kuuuun as best as I caaaaaaan."

Naruto.

"I could care less about the girl actually."

No.

"Olga-sama does not like girls as victors, don't I? My husband thinks she's pretty. He does not say but I know what the bastard thinks. And I don't agree. I hate her. She is stealing Naruto-kuuuuun from the pinkhead. She should just have let her sister go. What a slut."

No.

"I'm prettier right, Sasuke-kuuuuunnnn?"

No.

And Sasuke realizes that even before Hinata has encountered any of the other tributes from the arena, she is already making enemies.

And it is from the real, more dangerous ones.

Sasuke could only hope that Naruto has enough dignity not to break his promise.

To protect Hinata.

Or to at least make her go fast. Not let the sadists do it.

Because he might not be able to keep his.

Indeed, is she better off dead?

**(TBC)**

**Ugh. Me and my weird writing style. (So SasuSaku is canon?) **

**My keyboard is giving me massive trouble (the letter E is a particular problem, being reversed with other letters) so it's either until I have it fixed or I get used to it that I will start on the next chapter for both Love Wheel and this. Stupid laptop and it gets even worse, I tell you. I actually only managed to purge this out because I'm particularly productive at this moment. That is thanks to all of your encouragements and the fact I just want to rile up that troll anon who hates SasuHina (hmph)**

**Thanks to all the reviewers and I hope you watch out for the next part of the Games (And yes, I decided to write the Quarter Quell. Man, I really have to reread the books.). Next is Naruto's POV and anyone else pity Sasuke? I really enjoy writing his POV the most.**

**I hope you are still enjoying this. Please review. **


	5. The Star-Crossed Lovers

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**Part Five**

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**The Star-Crossed Lovers**

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**Naruto**

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**xviv. The Act**

**"So are we going to keep acting for the cameras and then keep on ignoring each other in real life?"**

**\- Peeta Mellark to Katniss Everdeen**

**"I believe we are hurting someone and one another as we keep through this. But we have to do this. I have no choice. It is the only way. I am sorry Hinata but one of us has to live."**

**-Uzumaki Naruto's thoughts**

In any Hunger Games, a bonfire is not to be risked and even at the deafening sounds of crickets chirping, they have to be as quiet as possible. Speaking in whispers is not out of the norm. The Capitol would be able to hear them anyway. Stealth is a weapon too after all and most times, it is infinitely more effective in a war than the most skilled of swordsmen. You have to hit them where they don't expect it. And though Naruto knows he is the type to run screaming war when charging, he can at least testify that he could also be unpredictable enough.

The night gets deeper, bathing the arena with an unnatural sinister glow that is darker than even Konoha's blackout. Which is weird. Nights in the arena have always been unnatural. The sky is colored purple and the moon is one flaring white ball. A visually-challenged person can navigate the woods if he only tried enough but Hinata prefers not to take any risk. And yet it stays dark.

First night in the arena, and Naruto finds out that Hyuuga Hinata is the type to take care of somebody else's negligence without saying anything about it. She puts dirt on his backpack, stating that the obnoxious orange color would attract a predator—human or otherwise—from miles away. She has also figured out how to use the water canister which means that somewhere in this forsaken place is a flowing river. And that for them to not get hypothermia in the cold that seeps as nightfall came; the best way to share the same blanket is to minimize their span.

Naruto's arms are around her and he could feel Hinata's warm breath on his neck, somewhat feeling inappropriately excited as she snuggles closer.

And it feels oh so natural.

"I don't want to be a part of their games." Hinata had said, in the last night before this nightmare. She looked bedraggled, like she has just gone through a rough night. Eyes bloodshot. Her cute button nose crunched. And she was limping. Hinata had come across him as he stared out of the Capitol windows, watching all the lights dance. And it struck him home that Hinata looked like Sakura after she sobbed and writhed and lamented beneath him. Like a woman bidding a last lover's goodbye.

Sasuke is a bastard. But he sure damn is a lucky one.

"They do not own me." She insisted and her eyes are distant as she sat in front of him.

"But what if it is the only way you have to survive?" he countered, eyebrows raised. Below them, the Capitol stayed awake as they always did even when it was not the Hunger Games. He wondered how in the world these supposedly educated people could justify things such as these. He wondered if they know enough tragedy for them to reverse that. He wondered if there is a way.

But indeed, what is tragedy?

What could make these people think that they are doing the worst sin?

"Then I'd rather just die." She stared at all the artificial trees that surrounded the whole city and he realized with a start that it was a parallel to the thought that a real tree would rather die in here as well than to be forever be blinded by a pretentious illumination.

He would not let that.

He realized that if there is someone he would hate to see perish, it would be her. She does not deserve it. She does not deserve to be in this world.

Nobody does.

"But there could be a next life you know, I believe it! In the next life we could be just normal highschool students. No Capitol. No Hunger Games. Heck, we could be ninjas even and nobody would stop us. You never know…"

It would have been better if she is harder to love.

But then again, the world has to. She is the light, a reminder of a better tomorrow. The girl who gave him bread when nobody else would. The girl Sasuke thought is worth living for when everyone else died. The girl who sacrificed herself for her sister because she knew that Hanabi _would_ win. And that victors never do. They survive. They never win. But Hinata would. He only wishes that he would live long enough to see it.

He smiled, knowing that after this and if all goes well, Sasuke would have to share Hinata with the whole world.

Believe it.

He did not tell Hinata this. But she knows. Hinata looked at him like he was mad and told him in a soft, resigned voice that she just cannot afford to think like that.

**xx. The Gamemakers**

**"The Gamemakers' job is to make the annual Hunger Games as spectacular, bloody, frightening and entertaining as possible. When the Head Gamemaker feels that the Games are becoming boring, they will introduce some new element such as a forest fire or tsunami or announce a feast to excite the audience to drive the tributes closer together and kill some of them off. They control everything that happens in the arena."**

**-About the Gamemakers, The Hunger Games Wiki**

**"What actually matters is that… for these people to like Hinata. Not the Capitol. I don't care if that woman hates her and would rather have her dead. Her opinion does not matter. Right, Kurenai? It's the Gamemakers. They have to like her. They liked me. They liked you. And it is what matters. Right? Right?"**

**-Uchiha Sasuke, in his desperation as he watches the Games unfold**

The moment he feels Hinata gasp beside him, he knows that they, after a long time of inactivity are already up to something. Two nights ago has been unusually quiet, with nothing but the sound of nature to occupy their thoughts. The sponsors have not sent anything after that one that led him to Hinata but that is understandable. Naruto can hunt and for now as the food supply in the arena is still abundant, they have everything they need.

And it rained last night too.

For two days he has not heard of any cannons and the first batch back in the Bloodbath only marked six dead, faces soon to be forgotten in the course of the Games showing one last time in the skies. The Careers are still very much alive, including them—the ones in alliance probably already reigning in the Cornucopia. Naruto hadn't had the opportunity to team up with them because by then, Hinata has already gone far and he knows he has a promise to keep.

Eighteen left.

Six dead. One of them by his own hands.

Two days.

They have an act to make.

And besides, even sans weapons which truthfully neither of them are skilled enough to use, Naruto and Hinata already have the advantage. They are the main characters of these Games, he knows now. All they have to is to keep it that way.

"Thank God you are okay, Hinata-chan."

"I don't know why I ran."

"That's a good thing."

"How did it go?"

"I killed the boy from Iron."

Hinata looks absolutely horrified. Which is something that he does not get. Sasuke killed and fooled more people than he can count, all for something that the Capitol must have found valuable in exchange for his dearest's life. He could see it in Sasuke's eyes, the fact that he could kill more just for Hinata's sake.

He wants to retort that Sasuke probably could do much worse for her but that is not what the Capitol wants to hear. "I just want to go to you as soon as possible. I saw the message."

And from her next words, the act commences. "I was hopeful you would come indeed."

What did Sasuke tell her?

"We're still friends, Hinata-chan right?"

"We don't even talk much back in Konoha. How can you say that so easily, Naruto-kun?"

"You kissed me. That must mean something."

"I'm sorry then."

"Didn't you feel it too? The spark?"

"That is clichéd."

"But I know what I want. And I see it in you."

"How about Sakura?"

He makes sure he looks like he does not know how to respond.

Hinata chooses the best manner to catch up with the flow. "Make up your mind." She admonishes icily, white eyes perfectly sad. She inches to the other side of the branch and thus marks the first intrigue between this year's star-crossed lovers.

In retrospect, Naruto can see that the whole thing is beyond cheesy. Sasuke surely would be cringing in utter disgust by now, even though Hinata and Naruto only kissed that one spontaneous time. But Kurenai did say that in consideration with the ever gullible Capitol, anything would be legit enough, if played correctly. For one thing, the Capitol didn't see Kurenai as the one who duped them in her own Games, accepting only her explanation that she was on some sort of PMS. What else would you expect from people who would purge their food to eat more while greeting each other a Happy Hunger Games?

He wonders why nobody else ever thought of this.

The ever invisible Gamemakers are an evil entity of considerable notoriety— an unseen, scheming, devilish bunch of PR officers that is any victor's worst nightmare and a dead tribute's cruel execution. He has been warned of this. He sees this proven when the fireball is launched—their tree burns and so does everything else-and Naruto finds himself clutching Hinata's trembling frame as they gaze up fearfully at the grinning, murderous Careers who met them when they outran the forest fire.

Either way, there is no escape from this. The Gamemakers after all, are the Hunger Games "divine intervention". Puerile Gods teaching humans the art of making fire, in order for them to incinerate themselves in the end.

The real Games begin.

**xxi. The Careers**

**"In District 12, we call them the Career Tributes, or just the Careers. And like as not, the winner will be one of them."**

**-Katniss Everdeen**

**"We were almost friends. I think that is what Naruto has been telling me all that time inside the cave. He probably thought that the five of us would always be and that all of us would come out of the Games alive. It was a foolish thought but then again, it made more sense than putting twenty-four people in a death match and thinking it wouldn't incite a rebellion soon."**

**-Hyuuga Hinata**

There are always and invariably two sets of what they dub the Career tributes in every Hunger Games. When that tradition started, nobody can remember but for as long as Naruto lived, there has always been the academy building in the west side of the Konoha district, overseeing the growth of the more privileged children who trained for the Games, who trained as killers. Hinata had attended the first three years in the academy, then altogether forfeited after realizing that she is better off a pharmacist. Naruto never had the money too but the forests are as good as any mock-Hunger Games.

In Konoha, such training is not mandatory just yet, unlike in Kiri, where refutably the orphans' only way of being honorable is to be in the Hunger Games. That is, so to speak the best they can be. But Konoha produces enough exceptional, unforgettable tributes and outstanding victors to be qualified for the infamous Careers, despite their preparations being nowhere as rigorous as the other richer districts. Over the years, some of the untrained Seam children even get far. But in the end, blunt force always wins. So while Konoha people's unique disposition statistically keeps the tributes alive for a while, it is skill that only matters in the final duel.

The final duel is the highlight of the Games and in this crucial moment do the Gamemakers have the sense to leave everything to nature. There has been many a time when the popular ones die at the hand of the most unlikeable Career.

Naruto recognizes that.

But before that are the usual band of Careers that eliminate all threats as soon as possible, before the momentous stabbing-each-other-in-the-backs that everyone, even the districts look forward to see. Twelve districts. Five Careers. Two gangs. Kiri and Kumo always go together, that's a given so fearsome even optimistic Konoha learned to dread it. Iwa, who are bitter rivals with Kiri, makes their own group with both Suna and Konoha, allegedly the weaker two of the five Career districts. Things tend to get all bloody when these two gangs prematurely cross each other paths so the Gamemakers try not to ruin the climax.

By making sure they only meet at the right moment.

But when that forest fire—no accident, obviously—forces Naruto and Hinata, the only careers that have played solitaire so far to come across the remaining tribute of Kiri and those other two from Kumo… The girl being an unattractive knife-chucker who never misses and the other two just tanned brutes who can kill people with bare hands.

Naruto wonders what exactly they are up to now.

The Careers look nothing like what the both of them expected. Cocky—check. No less dangerous-looking—yes. Though they somewhat look too enervated to actually be sure of their victory, as they usually are. He puts Hinata behind him, wary of the Kiri girl's wrist-flicking stunts that probably earned her a ten and the other two who are grinning weakly, but still grinning nonetheless. He glares at the threesome. Knuckles are cracked. Teeth are bared. But somehow, they don't strike Naruto as anything intimidating after a few moments of stareoff.

After all, the guy from Kiri who earned an eleven was instantly killed by a mere ball.

The Kiri girl's posture is unsteady. The other two try futilely to hide it but it shows. Hinata's hands tighten on his arm, her sudden Eureka gesture making Naruto know of their possible advantage already. The deduction is overwhelming and Naruto can now smell a fruitful alliance brewing before either of them outgrow their usefulness.

Before any of the three can make a move, the blonde boy scoffs, smirks and says as he lifts himself up with Hinata, suddenly feeling more confident of getting through these mutts: "You're hungry." He points out amusedly and the Kiri girl throws a knife.

It missed.

Naruto and Hinata takes a step back.

"They took over the Cornucopia, didn't they?" Naruto asks, wanting to confirm the startling thought that he and Hinata reached at the same time. That Iwa and Suna are now the leading Careers in these Games, complete with all the supplies and they are the Hunters while the once great Kiri and Kumo runs away, starving and desperate. Alienated, because they haven't known what it is like to be a prey this time. "Your leader was killed by a damn ball and you became a pathetic headless stinkworm that is driven away from their territory. I should have known. Suna and Iwa are pretty good this year."

"What the hell, Leaf!"

"You don't have anything with you. Except those knives." Naruto continues, undettered. "And don't give me those baloney that these two here are hand-to-hand combatants. They are only good at close-range and even so…" He looks at Hinata. "You and I both know that the Hyuuga clan are notoriously known to be the best. You saw Neji last year, right?"

Another knife is thrown. Naruto and Hinata ducks slightly in instinct. Hinata did train as a Hyuuga too. And Naruto always had some projectile or another being thrown at him back at home. Behind them at the canopy, the knife vanishes irretrievably.

Hinata looks back, eyes wide at the close shave.

Naruto smirks some more, enjoying this. "And the knife-chucking is only good when you are not delirious with hunger, you know that. Don't they always say that in the academy? Water is bestfriend all that crap. Happy Hunger Games, ain't it? Poor people who can't hunt. Hinata and me have been well-fed these three days. What about you? Enjoying the Starvelympics, I suppose?"

The girl finally snapped. "What do you do, huh. Two-timing lover boy? Suck faces?"

Naruto ignores the livid, badmouthing girl and faces the silent Kumo tributes, knowing that they are the ones more susceptible to his offer. "We are survivors. I can hunt. Hinata here can heal. You need that as I see that you are injured as well. But dare to stab us and we can kill. Otherwise, we can help you in overtaking Suna and Iwa. Numbers do matter right. And I was the one who killed your leader's killer, anyway."

The Careers look at each other.

Naruto extends a friendly arm, smiles. He tries to ignore Hinata who warningly tries to hold him back for it is better that he proceed alone from now on while she would focus more on their act that would gain her enough sympathy if he dies too early. "What do you say, friends?" he offers. "An alliance?"

And he now has an idea how to protect Hinata from now on.

Sasuke better keep his promise.

…

.

**xxii. Viewer's Sympathy **

**" Embrace the probability of imminent death and just know in your heart, that there is nothing I can do to save you."**

**-Haymitch Abernathy**

**"Remember, he would kiss her more often than you could count. Sasuke, they are supposed to be madly in love."**

**-Yuuhi Kurenai**

The funniest, most ironic thing is that of all people who might present a love triangle for their act, it is the sadistic, temperamental knife chucker from Kirigakure who is probably to dumb to think of any ruse, that starts crushing on Hinata.

It begins… well, to be honest, Naruto has no idea how that started. All he knows that in the next two days that the five of them stuck together—with Kiri pretending to be the leader of their hapless band and the other two keeping their mouth shut in a way that so undignified of any Kumo tribute that the whole Cloud district must be mourning right now—Kiri has taken into hanging around Hinata and fiercely glaring at her district partner because of the painful reality that the only reason that Hinata has not bolted out of the Career's presence just yet is because Naruto is with her.

So while Kiri flirts in that creepy way of hers (not to mention that she's a girl and Naruto never knew anyone more heterosexual than Hinata), the poor, harassed girl tries to inch as far as away as possible, which means hiding behind the amusedly grinning Naruto and the knife-thrower throwing a fit, instead of trying to polish those unused knives of hers, as is more practical.

"So lover boy…" The crazy, homo girl taunts, having nothing else to do after Hinata just made it clear that she prefers to die in her knives than to faint because of her love—her own corny words. "Please tell me all of these is not just an act."

"What act?" Naruto has enough temerity to look nonplussed. Because, believe it or not, Kirigakure also presents a threat in that department. As shallow and dumb as the girl proves to be, the much shallower and dumber Capitol might just believe what comes out of her filthy mouth.

And Kirigakure is convinced that if there is anything more unbelievable than Konoha, Kumo and Kiri teaming up this year, it is Naruto and Hinata kissing under the tree, something that the blonde boy is grateful that they have not think of as a dare just yet.

"I saw you and that pink-haired girl." She states, her voice dripping venom and speaking as if Hinata is not just within earshot. The Career's eyes are probing, dark and inquisitive. "And I watched enough porn back home to know what is the real thing."

"Ah. But isn't girl-on-girl-sex rather too far-fetched a reference for you to say that?" He laughs delightedly when he sees that the other girl knows how to blush. "Believe it, Sakura is just for fun before this. And who said that Hinata and I are lovers? I don't remember making any mention of a relationship."

It hurts to say that.

He hopes against hope that Sakura would never hear those things. And yet, even he can recognize a will of the wisp when it is thrown directly on his goofy face.

"You're not?" Kiri even sounds hopeful. Her eyes are glinting.

"I didn't say that." Naruto smirks. And Kiri sighs.

Hinata squeezes his shoulders.

He wraps his arms around her. And buries his face on her hair, observing that Sakura never smelt this good. And Hinata feels so small against him. And that suddenly he feels empowered to be able to protect the girl who the all great Sasuke he could never seem to be on par with, would not be able to. "I didn't say that." He repeats because he can feel Hinata's increasing heartbeat. He tries to forget what Kurenai said. Because he's just a Seam boy and how would Hinata ever love someone like him?

Indeed.

But then again, how could someone like Sasuke hope that Hinata can love him too?

"Because I think we have more than enough time to be able to say that silently towards ourselves."

And suddenly, that does not feel like a lie at all.

He hugs her tighter because he could feel his own heart plummeting as well.

The Careers despite themselves, all smile.

And Naruto realizes that they are all humans too, just the more unfortunate ones that had to forget about that. Trained as killers. Merciless. Fearsome. But he forgot that they are children too and that if anything, they are probably worst off than anyone else in these Games.

They died first before anyone else did.

From above, parachutes fall.

The Gamemakers stay quiet.

But Naruto knows well what they are up to. Camaraderie is something to revel from before these exact people kill each other two days later. And as they make friends with the Careers now, he knows they would prefer more to see them as mortal enemies later on. And that at the final showdown, they would like to see him kill Hinata.

Naruto promised never to let that happen.

Knife-chucker eyes them jealously. Kumo girl chuckles. Kumo boy tries to hold back his laughter as well. The fire burns and the birds roast. Hinata tries to wiggle away from him. Naruto's hold is unrelenting.

Sasuke would have been wincing by now, thinking that them being chummy is rather unnecessary. Kurenai would have been snickering. But both mentors know that for now, they are safe.

At another life, they all would have been friends.

And suddenly, Naruto wants nothing more than to kill all those people who made that impossible.

…

**(TBC)**

**Hm. Naruto's POV is very hard to write but I have already established a pattern and it would be too unprofessional to violate that. Not to mention I still don't have a new keyboard so this chapter is an exceptional monster.**

**Loving the reviews and totally ignoring the troll. Because dude, we just want to read a story. I don't think I am violating the rules more than people who write lemons, roleplays and author's notes as chapters in here. And we have a lot of them and nobody cares.**

**Simple prose but something that sets the stage for Hinata's chapter later on, which will be entitled "The Kill". Please watch out for that.**

**I'm not feeling well as of currently. Please review and that's happy points for me...**


	6. The Kill

After so much drama with Naruto canon, I realized that I don't care whether what happened in there. Sasuke could be inconsistent and marry Sakura for all he wanted. And Naruto could be all so sudden and just love Hinata out of nowhere. And Neji could just die for no reason. The important thing is that Kishimoto is still nice enough to let us make fanfictions and make a new scenario from the wonderful premise he has started. I don't get all the hate. I know how it feels to be denied the canonization for our ship but that is bound to happen to any otaku. As for me, I have my own universe for these characters and if in Naruto Series Sasuke and Hinata never met, I guess I should be thankful that I am free to imagine them as lovers in any other place that might have been kinder to this ship.

To the random flamer: Yah I get it. SasuSaku is canon. But you know what, it's not like I go around in every SasuSaku fic and put all my hate in there. Let us be mature here and let us crack-shippers be. You got your fun and now write something nice about Sarada and I might be convinced to finally support her parents' union.

P.S. (Why do I have a feeling that after Chapter 700, Naruto should end up like Brokeback mountain?)

.

**Six**

**.**

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**Hinata**

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**The Kill**

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**xxiii. Box**

**"I don't know how to say it exactly only...I want to die myself.I don't want them to change me in me into some kind of monster that I'm not.I keep wishing I could think of a way to...to show the Capitol that they don't own I'm more than just a piece in their games."**

**-Peeta Mellark**

**"And no matter how much I tried not to. No matter how much I tried to avoid everything. No matter how much I want to forget. I guess the fact that there would be a replay of this for the rest of the year escaped my mind. I don't want to remember any of their names and yet I ended up doing so. But then I realize that perhaps this is for the best… for Haku."**

**-Hinata's Victory Tour Speech in Kirigakure**

She knows it is only a matter of time before the Shinigami catches up to them—their pace is not exactly the best from a strategic standpoint and they are never much of a team anyway—but she never expected it to be too soon. She never expected to see death once again. She never expected she deserved it. Though she supposes that in this era of injustice and slaughter, should have.

"In order to continue to live, one must see death." Sasuke once said, his eyes distant as he surveyed the thick foliage that was the forbidden outskirts of Konoha. The place that no one dared to venture lest they meet immediate demise. The place that is taboo except for Naruto who saw enough of death in the Seams. Naruto with the eternal sunshine smile. Naruto who once ate the bread she tossed absentmidedly at him. Naruto who continually defied death because that is the only way he knows how to live.

An electrified fence couldn't stop Naruto. Never.

Sasuke has seen a lot of death too and yet he didn't seem to Hinata as alive as Naruto is.

Naruto smiles when Sasuke has long forgotten how to.

After consummating her selfishness in his soft, Capitol bed, Hinata was more blunt, more assertive. And Sasuke resumed being his unsmiling, critical self."Who are you kidding Sasuke-kun?" she had scoffed back but it did not stop Sasuke from making the same joke the next morning.

"See you."

See who?

Five days after the alliance of five was haphazardly made, the nightmare strikes. Before then, no cannons rumble and Hinata could only presume that the Gamemakers must be getting bored. Third day of their makeshift team and force fields (viewers call them "seals") started randomly appearing out of nowhere, effectively making a labyrinthe out of the biospherical arena. Traps are meticulously made to corner a tribute and one must be careful to not step in a locked "boxed seal" where one can only wait until someone vicious will open the only door for you, blade in hands. One way or another, you will never leave the room alive.

Hovercrafts, invariably are the next events.

Sasuke has warned her of this.

How he knew, she has no idea. In retrospect, it must be through one of his late night trysts. The Gamemaker's latest wife is reputed to be rather promiscous and filthy rich. Rich. Rich. RICH. Green, curly hair and pasty white complexion. She would have been beautiful in the norm but excess has always been the Capitol thing. On TV, she had watched the green-haired woman slip a thin arm on Sasuke's, the tabloids getting wild on their feet but neither caring.

For Hyuuga Hinata, it makes sense.

Fifth day and while trudging down the river for some much needed rehydration, they come across one of the "seals". Shining, shimmering magnetic fields that one would never notice, lest he walked into it and realize it must be some sort of transparent, electrocuting wall. Not enough to kill of course but an injury makes a differenxce. The smallest of papercut can be a disadvanrage at this game. Weakness could be death. It is such luck that Naruto has the inane habit of kicking pebbles. Reckless, considering that stealth is a valuable skill but as the small stone bounces back to them and made the force field more visible to the naked eye, Hinata knows that by some trick of fate, this arena has been made just for them.

Walls never stopped Naruto.

Neither would it do with Hinata.

"I want to walk with Naruto-kun. I want to be by his side. I want to see him become a victor."

Such is her unshakeable resolve and if anything has to be said, she is one of the mose decisive people alive.

Sasuke certainly thought so.

Backtracking and tracing back their steps because the river proved to be inaccessible, she realizes that they have unwittingly entered the box she should have known about.

Four corners of the area…

They are trapped.

"Oh for fuck's sake." Kiri girl curses harshly, stomping off in sulk as she kicked more rocks at the unrelenting seal. In a moment, she should realize the futility. The barrier holds. Stones bounce. But her animalistic urge to go on and just wash the grime from her long, dark hair momentarily overrides her sensibility. Kumo guy shares her impatience. The girl, the more reserved of those three stays silent but she does her fair share of blunt force anyway.

Naruto hungs back.

Hinata stares.

Plop. The force field stays.

"Eto… I think we should make a camp in the meantime." Naruto suggests, calling the attention of the Careers who are busy trying to assault the seal. In vain, just in case there is a self-destruct button somewhere. Seals are not an unfamiliar concept. In fact as soon as they entered the Games, they already are in one. And yet that does not stop anyone from trying to break them.

Sabaku no Gaara of the year ago used a seal to his advantage after all.

"You've got to be kidding me Lover Boy." Kiri spits out, glaring at the sheepish blond boy in agitation. Her fists are clenched. Her face is dark. She looks like the epitome of every tribute's worst fear, a merciless killing machine who does not listen to reason. "You know me, right? Lands of water. And you know what that means, right? "

Bless Naruto, he remains nonplussed. "That you are thirsty, I know. I am too. All of us what can we do in the meantime?"

What can we do indeed?

Hinata didn't expect that it will be Naruto who could never kill the most sedentary deer because of his inherent brashness and impatience, would be the one to make that point.

The Games change people.

"Somebody make a fire." Naruto directs, putting his backpack down as he impassively spans his eyes around for a safe enough clearing. Having lived in Konoha for all their lives, one has to be wary with what is above the trees. Sleeping under a beehive proves to be quite fatal. "It's clear to me that for now we are trapped. And I watched enough Hunger Games to know what to do. I came from a Career district too and Hinata and I have our own share of training. This arena is our element and I am just stating the obvious."

The three stays mum. But the air is heavy. They are seething. It is the truth.

Last year, the arena had been to the Kumo tributes advantage.

But Suna—Suna of the burning desert—won in the trials in the land of snow.

"This is the best we can do." Naruto adds. "There are the five of us. We are safer than most others in here. Comparatively. We kill if we have to but for now we can forget about taking a bath for a day."

Hinata knows that until somebody dies, the trap would stay there. This year's game is all about claiming a territory. It is quite clear to Hinata that someone else is within the perimeter of their box. To clear the force field and make it to the river, they would have to kill them.

Whoever they are.

And she can see that Naruto knows this as well. Sasuke must have told him about it too, the secrets of this arena. And he is ready to kill anyone, if it means that they keep on living in the meantime. Hinata realizes that if there is something more implausible and unnerving for her, it is a scheming Naruto who actually thinks and doesn't go through his being impetous, as what he is known for.

Naruto engineering another person's death in premediation is quite unheard of.

Two days pass. Nobody comes on sight to kill. They are getting impatient. The territorial box is getting smaller and smaller. Until she is sure, that nobody else is with them and that they are the only birds inside the cage after all.

And this is when Hinata realizes what the Gamemaker's game is all along.

They have to kill each other somehow. Blood of a comrade is the answer. Betrayal. It unlocks the seal.

Contemplating murder is the only way to get out of this. Hinata wonders if it is a good thing that she chose not to ask for any of their names.

The answer to this game is…

Traitor.

….

**xxiv. Snake**

**"Trust me, killing is much easier than this."**

**-Katniss Everdeen**

**"Your hands… as much as I'd hate to see them stained but they have to be. Be ready, Hinata. This is only the beginning. The most dangerous part… is still coming."**

**-Uzumaki Naruto to Hyuuga Hinata, a few****days before the finale.**

In Konoha, snakes are in a way like cockroaches is in the Third World literature that they still sell around in the Black Market. They are abominable creatures, ones the citizens do not appreciate but has learned to get by over time because they are always there. Konoha with its lush forest and towering trees is the home of several kinds of these slithering, legless lizards. Sasuke can identify them one by one, by name and function. Truth be told, Hinata had never been fond of them either but it keeps the Hyuga clan in relatively good business standing. Their antivenom are famous throughout the land and these days, the Capitol has started using such in their attempt to replicate the more aesthetic symptoms of dying.

The boneless, starving, scarecrow look had been a fashion seven years ago. Utakata of Tsuchigumo won by surviving without eating for thirteen days.

Hinata is one of the most talented pharmacist the Hyuuga has had in a long time, the only thing that she is useful at because at least, she can do it for both Hanabi and her. Her father thought it as an advantage considering that Hanabi was to attend the Academy soon to join the Games. The elders approved of her endeavour. Pretty soon, Hanabi and Neji were the stars of the Academy. And Hinata made miracles in her own subtle way.

Funny how fate works.

The fire crackles and burns resolutely before them, the orange flicker ominously visible to anyone who might be looking which could be everybody in the arena. Naruto has already informed the rest of the possible interloper that they might have to kill in order for them to unlock the seal. Plan A is to lure him out first. The three Careers think it is brilliant. They were ready to kill, even if it is that thirteen-year old girl from Kusagakure. Hinata would have rolled her eyes if that is her thing.

Of course, no living person fell in the trap.

Hours into the night and nobody stirred their radar. Hinata volunteers to take the last watch, somewhat confident that she does not have to be in alert anyway because the reality for this portion of the Hunger Games is that inside this box when nobody else could enter in adherance to the predetermined rules, they are in fact each other's enemies.

One of them has to die.

And Hinata won ders whether just killing herself silently could make enough difference. When she told herself she is ready to die, never has she thought that reluctance would be one of the emotions she would face. It's silly but fear she could bear. She always thought herself to be decisive. Stubbornly so. Nobody can stop her from what she has set her mind to do and yet everytime she so much as closes her eyes and just thinks of ending it all, Sasuke appears. And Hanabi. And Naruto. Neji. And she succumbs that she does not want them to see any more death.

But she is a selfish person too. She probably is just afraid.

Naruto has warned her of the snakes around the clearing they chose. "It's the same ones as what e have in the village." He whispers this to her, as the rest do their own thing. To the cameras, it would be intimate, a lover putting through sweet reassurance to his beau. His eyes are conspiratorial, serious. Hinata is not used to seeing him thinking this much, valuing foresight because even though Naruto cared about the future and that Hinata trusts and loves and believes in him, Naruto is not always the sharpest tool in the shed. He is never one for planning. "So you should be able to make an antidote right? Just in case."

She does not speak. She does not promise anything. Naruto's fingers touch the base of her neck as he lovingly caresses her tangled, unkempt hair. Hinata shivers.

And she can capture one too, she thinks. Snakes. Sasuke taught her how. Sasuke taught her many things. And yet she does not move as one of them comes slipping inside their huddle, crawling towards the inert, sleeping bodies. Hinata throws a pebble to ward it away from the snoring Naruto but does nothing as it makes its ominous eathly way to the Kumo girl. Fangs shine on the firelight and everything is silent once again.

Hinata just stares.

Kumo girl dies the next day, after screaming deliriously for hours before Hinata just ended everything for her out of sheer pity. "I don't have a cure for this. I have never seen anything like this before." She insists this apologetically as the other boy beg for her expertise in anguish. Kiri girl stares ahead, ever uncaring. "She's useless anyway." Knife-chucker mutters under her breath. In which Hinata winces. Naruto glances at her because Hinata knows that he knows and that he cannot look at her in the eye because of it. The truth is that the snake indeed is the death of the girl but who is the snake?

"You let her die! And how are you even helping us now? Huh?" Kumo boy screams at her. Kiri girl tells him to shut up, that at least Hinata can cook and is it even her fault that she has no idea what kinds of obscured snake the Capitol has around as a trap. "I don't see why you are upset. You are going to kill her anyway. It's how you people from Cloud do business." Naruto's face is grim. He knows. Kiba almost died of the exact same symptoms and Hinata had been able to cure it back then.

Why not now?

The more ruthless, guiltless side of her knows that the answer is but the simplest. They are in the Hunger Games. And there is no place for someone like her in this cruel setting. What is compassion to this horrible place but a certain cause of death? To survive, she should become someone else. Even though that someone would be unrecognizable. She already is someone else, the moment she flirted with Deidara, slept with Sasuke and kissed Naruto.

But she thinks, with resolve that she will always be Hanabi's oneesan.

Meanwhile, the seal lifts.

The cannon booms.

And Hinata is credited for her first kill.

….

**xxv. Cannon**

**"Whenever I hear that sound, it's music to my ears."**

**-Finnick Odair**

**"The sight I could forget. The smell of blood I could avoid. But the sound of death is something else and for as long as you know that one tune that is symbol to somebody else being killed in your presence, you know that the Hunger Games is always going to be with you. Whether you are deaf now is immaterial. God knows, it has always been with me every waking moment of my damn life."**

**-Uchiha Sasuke to Hyuuga Hinata in the Victory Train Ride**

The Capitol's National Anthem is the herald of death. Not quite an elegy. Not quite an ode. But it certainly is a prelude to Charon's coming as the river of Styx to ferry one to Hades. It first played at the end of the Great Rebellion seventy-four years ago, marking the beginning of the first Hunger Games. The beginning of the Capitol's reign, an authority Hinata never found sensible. Since then, it plays every year. For seventy-four years. During the reaping, during the Opening Ceremony , during the Interviews and even during the countdown. Hinata has not heard of it for the next eight days that they were in the arena since the first six people are killed in the Bloodbath. But she killed the Kumo girl and now, one way or another she will hear the sad song of Death.

Her picture displays up in the skies. Kumogakure, it says. Sixteen years old. A girl with platinum blonde hair and tanned skin, her teeth a brilliant white posed for a confident smile. Eight days, six hours, ten minutes and fourteen seconds. Snake bite. All these information and they forgot to include her name. in a way Hinata is glad. That way, even after her death, the girl she killed will always just be someone from Kumo.

They never state who killed her too.

Another picture shows. And they are surprised. None of them has heard a cannon. The girl from the land of Iron: a red-haired young lady of fifteen, her mouth pressed into a thin line and her eyes an obvious myopic. Died from being bludgeoned. Eight days, ten hours, twenty-seven minutes, fifty-nine seconds. No information about who dealt the blow but they already know.

Suna and Iwa tributes live on.

The anthem ends with the number ten displayed prominently up in the skies, telling that it is only a matter of time before another cannon is heard and it is goodbye. Ten tributes left within ten days. The Capitol must feel accomplished.

She does not think of how different that Kumo girl looked when she perished, her dark complexion pale for the first time, attractively sunken cheeks bloated and her lips downturned into an eternal grimace. In her last portrait, she looked complacent, vicious and ready-to-go. But she killed her. Hinata did. By not letting her live.

She knows this is only going to be one of many.

It is only a matter of time…

A matter of time comes with a swish of a speeding arrow and the Kumo boys' blood spraying as the feathered projectile pierced his throat. The tribute kneels in instinct, his mouth poised into a silent agonized scream as he held the spear in desperation. Blood spurts and with practiced eyes, Hinata knows it is already too late for him. Kiri girl launches some knives. Naruto ducks as one more arrow was fired. In a quick succession of dodges and panicked retaliation, Hinata finds herself shoved in the bushes as Naruto engages into a brawl with the big brute from Iwa. And Kiri girl screams at the Suna archer to show herself.

Both are wounded, violet liquid straining their gashes. Naruto has nothing against a sword-wielding mammoth. He lays there helpless, attempting to evade blows with mere reflex. The archer is quite a remarkable long-distance fighter. Kiri girl has run out of knives and for the first time in her life, she learns the concept of vulnerability. And Hinata…

She has killed again.

The girl from Iwa lies before her, dead and Hinata has blood in her hands. She does not know what happened. There is a scuffle, sure. The girl from Iwa creeping from behind with an axe and she just… reacted.

Is this what Sasuke felt?

"They were trying to kill me. I just have to kill them first."

He didn't say that it is easy, that it can be done, that it is not within the realms of impossibility but she heard it anyway. Sasuke believes she could kill to live and Hinata is unsure how to feel about that.

The sound of the cannon startles her. One down and it is her kill. Again. A hand squeezes her shoulder and in adrenaline-fueled surprise, she almost hit the person in question with her weapon…

Weapon…

Murder weapon…

Kiri girl blocks the swinging axe effortlessly, her teeth gnashing and her eyes wide in absolute fear. She is trembling. Cuts and gnashed littered her scarred, calloused face. "What the fuck are you doing?" she exclaims, coughing. Hinata stares at her wide-eyed. The girl does not look good at all. Gone is the confidence and bloodlust. All is left is desperation and the fearful child that everyone in this Games should be. "Let's go! We are no match against them now! Dammit! What the hell? Come on!"

And somehow, she looks different.

Gone now is the paint on her face, something that she never noticed before but now. In replacement is something more natural. Hinata couldn't quite put a finger on it but…

Naruto is nowhere to be seen.

"What about-?"

She drags her away weakly, her pull not as stong as it should be. Hinata stands and lifts the injured girl up, draping her bloodied arms into her shoulders. They run because this is what instinct has told her to. _But what about Naruto?_And she finds that in the face of imminent death and a goal to keep herself alive for now, she forgot that she should care more than she does now.

"What about Naruto?"

That is all she could say. Kiri girl has already passed out in fatigue. Her feet have its own mind as she drags them away of the siege. From the corner of her eye, she keeps an eye out of Naruto in futile hope that he would come charging to join them in their escape. But such is but a will-o-the-wisp. The only reason that they even have a headstart is because somebody is left there to be butchered up and it is only a matter of time…

What about Naruto?

Naruto?

Naruto!

The cannon booms for the second time.

And Hinata falls down to her knees in utter grief and down, down below they slide away from the crossfire, down the cliff which end she does not know. But what does she care about a future that only invariably leads to their death?

So she closes her eyes and braces herself.

"I'm dead anyway." She mutters and everything goes black.

She dreams of cannons, of disfigured corpses, of Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke and the many things that are left unsaid.

….

.

**xxvi. Life**

**"Hope. Hope is the only thing stronger than fear."-President Snow**

"**I want to protect the person important to me… I want to work for that person. I want to fight for that person. I want to make that person's dream come true… That is my dream. And when you realize you are needed, that is what makes life most worth existing for."**

**-Haku to Hinata, during his death.**

But Naruto is alive.

"He is?" is the incredulous response of Kiri girl… no… she knows better now…who she learns is called Haku and who is not quite as unattractive as she thought and who is not quite a girl either and who in her… his delirium has spouted quite a few things while revealing in one go the biggest conspiracy that has happened in the Hunger Games.

That Haku is quite an adept crossdresser and as tight and foolproof and perfect as Capitol's security and background check is famed to be, she has managed to hoodwink them and everyone else into thinking that she was this undesirable, noisy, ugly girl when in fact _he_is this ethereally, beautiful boy whose exquisitely chiseled features is close competition to that of Sasuke's and the sense of mischief as volatile as Naruto's.

It seems like they are not the only one who has an act going on there.

But somehow, it all clicks together. The elaborate deception… Kiri can easily be forgiven about that. Capitol loves audacity, the nerve of someone breaking the norm in the most unexpected way possible. Capitol loves surprises and for sure the ratings has skyrocketed overnight as Hinata unwittingly reveals Haku's real gender (and inhumanly beautiful, androgynous appearance) in her attempt to extract the poison. And above all, the Capitol loves mysteries. Have fun figuring out what in the world his motive is. Why the pretext? Why the risk? Why does he have to morph into a vile Career stereotype when he could be the most unique and popular tribute when he just chose the truth?

"I would have been easily disqualified." He tells her. She is still not used to the idea that the Kiri Knifechucker that Naruto despised so much is a boy. A beautiful one. And that he has a name. "People in Kiri knows me as a street urchin. A girl. But I guess everything changes now. My mentor knows though. Zabuza-sama just told me to keep up the mask in the meantime. He seemed to think that it would help."

And it did. That night as Haku regained consciousness and spilled the beans to a more than curious Hinata, it rained parachutes.

"It seems that the cannon I heard is for another person after all." Hinata expresses this extrapolation in pure relief, her smile priceless. From the skies, she can see the Iwa girl and the Iwa guy in the montage of The Fallen. Naruto is nowhere. Eight remaining. And Hinata sighs. At least he's safe. For a moment. "It's not like I ever doubted that he would make it. Naruto has overcome worse things but it's just unbelievable, you see."

"I wonder where he is though." Haku mentions, forehead creased. His voice has not changed much but now sans the brash and uncivilized vocabulary, he sounds more pleasant and thus has rendered Hinata more receptive to the camaraderie he offers. He really is quite the beauty… "Considering that he probably got off even worse than me, we cannot hope that he is in any shape to find and reconvene with us, don't you think? Lover Boy is probably chanting some sonnet or limerick to pass off as Romeo."

Hinata flinches. The biting, acerbic humor is still there though. Haku is still playing devil's advocate in her relationship with Naruto and is not at all adversed in discussing it on record.

"We'll look for him first thing in the morning then." She suggests, twiddling her fingers anxiously.

"What about the Careers?"

"You make it sound like you aren't one."

"Do you suggest that we just cross the bridge when we get there?" He chuckles. "Quite brave."

Nothing compared to what you just did though, she thinks treacherously, her eyes on the aesthetically-pleasing boy before him. He has undergone quite the transformation, his feminine beauty still astounding her as the glow of the fire dances before his elegant countenance. The night is young. Five hours or so, it would be sunrise and bright and with Naruto within reach but they cannot afford to let down their guard and sleep through it. At least not when things are still hot.

"Tell me about Konoha." He requests as the awkward silence stretches. His eyebrows are raised in askance. Hinata has to remind herself constantly that who was once a comrade of convenience now has a name. And that he thinks he owes her. "And I'll tell you about Kiri."

So she tells him about Hanabi, about the pet cat she secretly cherishes, about the seemingly never-ending forests, about the Seam, about how she first met Uzumaki Naruto. All of which happy memories because she wants to die with them. She tells her about how she would catch snakes with a special friend, how they would name them after the most ridiculous reasons. How he gave her a token before leaving the Games because she has none.

"Would that be Uchiha Sasuke?" He says smilingly and he tells her that he understands because that is exactly how he felt about Zabuza-sama too. The Uchiha pendant glints in the crackling firelight. Fanning the flames, she recalls. Didn't Deidara nicknamed her the Girl on Fire?

"Kiri is not the best place though." Haku adds. "With all the mist, the lack of trees and sometimes we don't even get much fish when it's the red tide season. Or when there is the occasional oil spill. But we learn to bear with it and I guess I love it more than any place in the world. I assume Konoha is no different between you and Lover Boy?"

"In Konoha, we have the hated peacekeepers."

"What makes you think we are any different?"

"Being a fisherman versus a lumberjack, I sure think that the distinction is quite clear."

"I'm from Kiri but would you believe that we seldom eat our own harvest?"

"In Konoha, we are not allowed to have a luxury of firewood."

"Aren't you a Hyuuga though?"

"And yet here I am."

"My parents were killed when I was six. They had sharp mouths and the authority didn't appreciate it."

"Same as Naruto's."

"Well, isn't it the same as everybody else's?"

"That's life."

Stories are traded. Opinions are expressed. This is life and Hinata realizes that while she is not the worse off in this cruel world, there might be a lot of ways for it to be better. At another time. At another life. At another universe where there is no Capitol and no Hunger Games and where Haku can freely be a boy and Hinata can be a good—better perhaps?- sister.

But this is the bitter reality.

And this is life.

"Why live then?" she asks, to no one in particular, to the world that might not care to hear. To Sasuke who vehemently thinks she should.

They are just children.

And damn if she just had wanted to remain a naïve, innocent one had she just perished the moment the platforms of the arena rose.

But Haku answers on cue. As if such is a given. As if nothing else hinders. As if Hinata might not have any. As if this is what everything is all about. He raises both of his eyebrows. "I have a reason."

The fire crackles.

"Reason." She murmurs. The air swishes. The arena is quiet for once. And the whole world is watching. So Hinata counts hers.

Sasuke told her that she is supposed to see him after this.

And unknowingly, that becomes a motivation.

She wants to apologize. One last time.

She just wants his necklace to be returned to him in one-piece.

….

**(TBC)**

**I am afraid that this is not one of my best efforts but I have to illustrate the stage for the climax of the Games which as you may have guessed is a sort of analogy to the Rue scene in the book. And Hinata's kills where at one point, she killed because she is being attacked and the other is that for necessity and subconscious intention. And the introduction of Haku as****well. I think this one has not been foreshadowed properly but he is rather necessary in the plot for my version of Catching Fire. As for Naruto,****well, let's find out.**

**Next chapter would be Sasuke's POV about everything that will happen in the arena.****We****all know that is the only one worth reading. More will be revealed about Haku and Zabuza in the next chapter because face it, Sasuke is the most reliable narrator among the three of them.**

**Thank you for reading and please review. I certainly want to hear your thoughts. Feel free to rant and love ya, guys!**

...


	7. The Loophole

...

**Killing Me Softly**

**Chapter Seven**

**.**

**.**

**The Loophole**

**..**

**.**

.

_Sasuke_

_._

_._

**xxviii. The Miracle**

"**Friend. Lover. Target. Hunter. Victor. Fiancee. Enemy. Mutt. I'll add it to the list of things I use to try to figure you out."**

**-Peeta Mellark**

"**Miracles are for those who believe in God. For those who believe in a saviour. But the fact that you are here, alive and well and survived two Hunger Games, is miracle enough. You are our saviour Hinata. Our messiah. Even though sometimes I wonder who you have become to be now."**

**-Uchiha Sasuke**

When Momochi Zabuza of the sixty-second Hunger Games approaches him later that day with a grin that is perceptible despite the mask on his face, Sasuke is not alarmed. Not at all for Hinata's mentor is not someone you can easily catch off-guard, in appearance that is. There has been a lot of freak surprises in the young Uchiha's life and when your own tribute teams up with a cross-dressing boy that is the Capitol's standard for divine beauty, one is bound to be immune to any more shockers for the day.

And Sasuke expected it anyhow. Haku is the only one left for Kiri and Hinata is the only one for Konoha for Naruto seems to be as good as dead now that he lays wounded somewhere in the secluded caves around the arena and with the waning interest on the "lover boy" not getting any better. And for the both of them to survive, Haku and Hinata has to stay together in the meantime. Neither is specially skilled. Haku can throw knives. Hinata did kill twice already. But what good does that do to the remaining killing machines from Suna who in vengeance, hunts for them specifically and the surprisingly dangerous ones from Yumegakure whose modus operandi proves to be quite lethal?

On screen, Hinata makes a fire. None of the smoke escapes the stone roof above. Haku stands apart, staring and his arms crossed. His calm voice talks about the fact that the Gamemakers may soon flush them out of the cave and have them confront the guys from Suna again.

"It wouldn't be the first time." He says cynically, his bitter and sharp humour back from the unforgettable masquerade as the ugly... unlikeable, "lesbian knife-chucker" (as Naruto charmingly put it). The light glints from the only knife left of his once vast arsenal, reflecting Haku's own misgivings about their survival. "And you know what they say, there is no such thing as a second chance."

Hinata does not speak but bites her lip. Her eyes seem resigned, much as when she proclaimed that she is not afraid to die. Then why did you run? Sasuke wants to ask her. Why did you kill? Interesting is an understatement for the things you do when you are threatened. Hinata is nothing special after all. She is like any other human being scrambling around the thread of their own pathetic existence. The primal instinct is to live. The survival of the fittest. She is... just like him. A person in love.

The Capitol loves that. The Capitol loves her. Hinata who bravely stepped in to save her sister. Hinata who admitted to the public that she is in love with a man who is taken. Hinata who defied expectations and killed two people already. Hinata who Haku may be really interested in.

The betting ranks shows in a five-second frame. Hinata is right on second place, the same position for Neji in the previous games. And he was killed so easily.

As the coverage moves on to the drama within the Suna tributes—them parting with the promise to kill each other because camaraderie is such a joke in the Games and no, we are not friends-, Zabuza speaks to him for the first time and tells him what he already knows.

There is a loophole in the arena.

Haku in all his elaborate deception managed to get in after all. Nobody has ever fooled the Capitol ever since Gaara of the Sand made use of the arena's nature to evade even the Gamemaker's most intricate traps. And that is not even quite close to the gravity of what Hinata's ally has done. He has hoodwinked the whole world since the beginning. What other things does he have on his sleeves?

Is the revelation even accidental?

"And I assume you allowed that." Sasuke remarks, eyebrows raised but his gaze not moving away from the screens. Deidara's lively commentary about the Suna tributes separation goes unheard though as he mulls over the absurdity of the whole thing aloud. "It's something that you would do. You are the type who always wanted to make a statement. Like when you said that your Games would be different because the tributes would not kill each other." This time, Sasuke stares at the man's dark, unflinching eyes. "But instead you alone killed them all."

The legendary sixty-second Hunger Games. The demon of the Mist triumphed as he killed virtually everyone in the arena. He was unstoppable. Not even the Gamemakers could do anything.

And he proved then that anybody who had guts can control the once impervious Games.

"It was originally Haku's idea." He answers, eyes diverting now as a rerun of when Haku almost kisses Hinata shows again. It is so far the most voted scene of the Games: two souls touched by each other's stories. Hinata with her beloved sister. Haku with his murdered parents. Their faces close together, their heat signatures a single blob of image. But Hinata's reluctance wins over, because everyone could guess that she remembers about Naruto and how she is supposed to be madly in love with him.

Sasuke hates that particular scene.

"Haku is my sort-of protégé." Zabuza resumes, unaware of the Sasuke gritting his teeth. He smiles as the short romantic moment between the two most popular people in the world concluded. "We met three years ago. The boy was starved, beaten by Peacekeepers for unauthorized fishing. I was a lonely man who walked around the District at night to ward of the screams of my victims. To make the long story short, he knows that I am the richest man in the District and I wouldn't have known he was a boy. Not anyone else anyway. And so he tried to offer himself to me, if you know what I mean."

There is a mischievous, knowing glint in the Demon's eyes. Sasuke definitely knows what he means.

"But I have my own hand, ay? And it is never my style to violate children that way. I murdered twenty-three of them in seven days and I certainly don't want to add a living but broken one to my ever growing conscience. I decided to take him in then. He became my servant boy."

"Ah. That makes so much fucking sense." Sasuke deadpanned.

The Kirigakure mentor chuckles. "Oh well three years with me and Haku got the mischief mentality as how you yourself put it. He wants to prove something to everyone and so his first reaping comes and he realized that even the Capitol's most sophisticated identifier thinks he is a she. You know, like his basic genetic makeup is that of a female but the rest of him is male. I am sure that the old hag Tsunade would be able to tell you more about it."

Sasuke shrugs.

"So Haku started to think of a plan."

The show once again moves on Hinata and Haku. Neither could sleep. Hinata voices her concern about Naruto. Haku tells her that once that they have a plan about moving around the arena with less danger to themselves, they would go on and rescue him.

His eyes are determined, results-driven and something that he knows Hinata feels herself. Something that makes you want to believe in the most elusive of miracles. Hinata has been the burning tree in the parade, like the legend of a man named Moses. The messenger that someday, somehow, the slaves would be free from their unjust king. Naruto is the ally who helps her cross the desert in her quest, the one who listened to her message.

And Haku seems to be the magical, miraculous rod which turns to a snake, summons frogs and makes the largest river in the world bleed red.

"He wants to prove that there are loopholes in the arena."

And Sasuke starts to believe that there is.

**xxvix . The Gift**

"**All those months of taking it for granted that Peeta thought I was wonderful are over. Finally he can see me for what I am. Violent. Distrustful. Manipulative. Deadly. And I hate him for it."**

**-Katniss Everdeen**

"**Wow... I didn't think you'd be this popular."**

**-Uzumaki Naruto**

The third night in the cave, somebody sends Hinata—and only Hinata this time- a gift. The third one in two days, the shortest interval since Uchiha Sasuke killed his adversaries half-naked and with such a handsome smile on his flawless face. Haku himself has no shortage of popularity, although this seems to be limited somehow by the Gamemakers devising a way to make his own parachutes harder to reach. The boy from Kiri seems to have made as much enemies as he has made loyal, paying fans. That is indeed, Sasuke surmises as the parachute for Hinata makes its slow descent, the glaring hole in his so-called ace.

The small, circular case contained grenades. Explosive ones that works like a heat-seeking missile. Inescapable. Deadly. The most foolproof weapon. Only few of them. But more than enough to make the two of them—no Hinata— realize that she can win this.

The most expensive gift in the Games so far.

Beside him, Otsutsuki Toneri basks on the shocked look on both Hinata and Haku's face, his self-satisfied smile a fixture on his handsome, almost-normal face. White hair frames his aristocratic features, famously transplanted blue eyes rapt in attention to the two figures in the screen. They are Hyuuga Neji's once white eyes, Sasuke muses with his brows furrowed in sudden wrath. Even the corpses of the tributes warrant no escape from the Capitol's perversion. And now, he has his sights set on Hinata.

And like when he arranged to get Neji's eyes be restored and be put on his once empty eye sockets, he is willing to pay for it.

"My great grandmother was a Hyuuga." He did mention to Sasuke when he approach him during one of the routine sponsor parties conducted for the remaining tributes. Kurenai didn't have much luck on finding someone who would willingly fund Naruto's medication—even the cheapest of ointment could have helped. But Sasuke found himself flocked with those who wanted Hinata to survive. She is an instant celebrity and Otsutsuki Toneri so far, is the most commanding and the most lavish of her fans.

But such comes with a price.

"I am certain my great grandmother would want me to marry someone from her clan." He ploughed on after they shook hands. Toneri did open the conversation with his interest to send Hinata a weapon and while Sasuke was not too enthusiastic with the exchange that would be happening inevitably, he knew he had no choice.

His Katana from his Games came with a life of slavery.

And he had no say to that matter either. Until now.

"I want Hinata to be my wife as soon as she gets out of that place."

Sasuke barely managed to restrain himself from killing the man in the flashy kimono right there and then.

"So now is the time that you would dispose of me I guess?" Haku's voice comes up from the speakers, interrupting Sasuke's murderous plans. The boy has already inched away an oppressive, careful distance from Hinata, his eyes warily regarding the set of bombs on her hands. They were shaped oddly, little clay birds that do not seem anymore than an artistic, polymer sculpture. But anyone who watched the previous Hunger Games knows better. It was the Gamemaker's last attempt to kill Gaara.

It came close.

Hinata's genuinely horrified reaction delights Toneri on the other hand. He claps his hands, licks his lips and murmurs about how beautiful his future wife really is. The plan is to have Hinata know that she has an edge. Prompt her to kill Haku. Help her to kill the remaining ones all throughout. Toneri obviously does not appreciate rivals.

Sasuke flinches at the thought.

He is no different.

And as ridiculous as it sounds, the fight for her heart happens right before his eyes. And poor, poor Hinata does not even have any idea.

"I have no use to you now." Haku elaborates awkwardly and Sasuke realizes that the statement was merely a lighthearted, self deprecating joke between two... close friends. Something that the inherently absentminded Hinata failed to catch on. Some things do not change, the Uchiha thinks with relief. She is still a sucker for such remarks. "And you have such fancy weapons now I believe you can kill me better than those other two."

"You judge me for that?"

He could tell that Hinata's heated retort surprised the boy. His eyes widen at the response, his stance now uneasy as he is finally rendered unsure of Hinata's change of demeanour. In her hands are the bunch of white explosives, designed as a ring for better provision and each one in every finger. She starts it off by wearing one on her right hand-ring finger.

"No." Haku says and his uncomfortable smile tells the world that he is trying not to sound patronizing. "You did what you did. I mean, what you have to."

Hinata sighs heavily, shrugs and to his utter surprise, extends her palms open with the other five grenades towards the boy, coaxing him to get it with a nod. She is older than him by three years and now, it finally starts to show. It reminds him of the somewhat vague sisterly relationship between Hanabi and Hinata, stern and authoritative only at most pressing of times. Otherwise, doting and light that you could not tell who should be the elder one. "I know what I did." She says and as Haku accepts her more explicit offer for an alliance, she continues with finality. "It's a shame that we have to do it again but we have to. We have to save Naruto-kun."

So Haku takes her hand.

The name of the tribute from Konoha becomes a household topic. The "Soft Killer" comes out of the cave with her rod of miracles, now armed and dangerous. Hinata stares up at the slowly brightening skies and Sasuke hears her apologize.

_This is for Naruto-kun. _He did not hear her say that but the determination as she starts the hunt for anyone who might come against them says as much.

**xxx The Funeral**

"**Just this time, Twelve. For Rue."**

**-Thresh, The Hunger Games Movie**

"**Haku-kun taught me something. That one has to have a reason to live and likewise, one has a reason to die for your stay in the world to be worth the struggle. I think I have a reason to live now, Sasuke-kun. I was ready to die for Hanabi but now I believe it is more important to live for her."**

**-Hyuuga Hinata**

The grenades ran out but it did not succeed on killing anyone.

It is the poisonous dart of the clever and self-sufficient girl from Yumegakure that does the job.

The cannon for Haku booms.

And Hinata in her blind rage and own instinct for self-preservation, kills the girl with her bare hands.

Sasuke cannot believe what is happening.

But it happened. Right before the world's focused eyes. Hinata and Haku destroying the Corcunopia, thinking that this was where the remaining Careers kept their supplies. Five grenades wasted for food and weapons that are safely on the backs of the Suna tributes who have long since vacated the area to hunt on the other side of the arena. Disappointment. The tribute from the Sand who uses arrows then attacked them. Danger. Through three grenades for evasion, they narrowly escape. However injured, the girl from Suna lives on. The last ones were for the Yumegakure girl that found them in their weakest but it was no good.

The dart whizzed over Hinata's head and went straight to Haku's neck. The effect was instantaneous. Haku collapsed and fell into a heavily-breathing heap behind her trembling, threatened frame.

The grenades did manage to slow the girl down as she tried to pounce on Hinata and the brief wrestling match won on the latter's favour. Hinata held both of the girl's arms as she straddled her forcefully. Her hand enclosed on the girl's neck and as she persisted, the light soon vanished on the girl's eyes. The Girl from Dream stiffened and in one final struggle to keep the life that was doomed the moment she was born, she was history.

The cannon booms.

The third blood perishes.

Hinata is now officially, in Hunger Games standard, a victor material. _Minimum of three_, Zabuza was always heard of saying in their circles. The others nod in collective agreement. Because it is true. Because minimum of three and nobody dares to dispute your victory.

Sasuke has killed eleven in his Games.

But he never expected Hinata would kill enough to make her a... victor. For what is a Hunger Games victor but a glorified war hero? An honoured murderer? A person so desperate he even resorted to kill a child.

But they are children too. They have been at least. And Hinata, he could tell has already abandoned such fantasies.

Crawling to Haku's side is a rigorous effort and the boy was barely coherent when he says his final words.

"I finally found a reason to die."

The rest are made in whispers, soft enough for it to evade even the Capitol's most sophisticated ears. They Gamemakers would try later anyway, in an attempt to hear what the boy who lied about his gender would find worth telling to the girl he chose to protect even in death. Hinata sobs helplessly by his side, repeating his name.

Haku's smile is broken, resigned, forgiving.

And in a brittle voice as he leans closer, he requests for Hinata to kiss him. "I need to know." Is all he offers. And it is enough for Hinata.

Two pairs of lips meet in a desperate dance to evade death. Hinata's eyes leak the tears of a woman scared of letting go. Her hold is desperate, unrelenting. Haku grins throughout all of this. The kiss lasts for no more than a brief moment. Hinata embracing the frail figure whose hands tremulously holds into her hair.

He says something into her ear. Hinata's eyes are wide, tearful and he could tell from her vigorously shaking head that she is about to say no.

_I know now._

Fourteen days, seventeen hours, fifty-five minutes and eight seconds. The weather is mild. The skies are bright. The birds are singing. But Haku is gone.

And so the world witnesses a funeral of flowers and a heartfelt elegy to a bestfriend that anyone could ever make in the face of peril.

The birds join as Hinata starts to sing.

**xxxi. The Rule Change**

"**Fire is catching. And if we burn, you burn with us."**

**-Katniss Everdeen**

"**I've always known you can kick ass. Keep doing that and you would be able to do it in a bigger scale. Zabuza-sama would help you."**

**-Haku's dying words**

Haku's death did several things to the ratings. In one day as the clip was shown for the first time through the edited, featured episode with the scripted commentary, the views went over the roof. The world was astounded, blown over. Mothers cried their hearts out for the beautiful boy whose face twisted into the cold edifice of death the instant the deathly poison took effect. The strongest of men froze, disbelieving. Romantics nodded because they were supposed to foresee this. And the scene of Hinata kissing Haku repeated for the rest of the day.

The world stayed riveted.

The funeral of flowers was the next subject of trend. Unprecedented and unheard of, Hinata putting Haku into rest in the most beautiful setting as possible touched the hearts of the mass. She painstakingly put a garden around his limp and cold body. His lips are blue, dry and twisted but the boy stays the most beautifully adorned corpse. "You don't belong here." She has said in silent deference of what she has done. "You don't belong here in this hell. Like the flowers beside you. Like all the remaining beauty in this world."

And then she sets it all on fire.

The pyre burns and Hinata's innocence burns with it.

The Capitol is in an uproar.

"They should do something." Is the universal opinion. For what is Hyuuga Hinata now but a woman rid of purpose? Everything is taken away from her so easily that rushing after Naruto is of no point. She sits in there in silence, as she watches the fire consume Haku's entirety. _You don't belong here. No beautiful thing belongs here. _And for a moment, Sasuke shares the ignorant fools' fears that Hinata might also be referring to herself.

That she might just be awaiting death to take her away.

But then Hinata is never much of a narcist.

She closes her eyes and leaves. And the Capitol lost something to look forward for.

Hinata stops looking for Naruto.

And she sits there for every tribute to find, waiting for her end.

The ratings begin to dwindle.

Zabuza is of course, not present during the Mentors Meeting. Only those who still have surviving tributes are there so he has no one to confide to about what he thinks of the current situation. Temari's stare is hostile from across the room. That has been going on for a while since Hinata rose into the betting ranks. Gaara's regard is calm and Kurenai's is that of silent contemplation.

Seven tributes remaining. Two from Suna. Two from Konoha. One from Yumegakure. Two from Land of Tea.

The air is therefore competitive.

"So two tributes can win now, eh?" Temari begins and her smile is a smirk that Sasuke wants desperately to obliterate. "As long as they are in the same district. Hah! Correct me if I am wrong but it sounds to me that they just want the Konoha tributes to be all lovey dovey once again now that the man in drag died."

The rest of the mentors—former victors—has their distrustful eyes on both Kurenai and Sasuke. They know what is going on. Some strings are getting pulled here and this is in order to pacify the angry viewers. Those of whom wants Hinata to keep moving as obviously was Haku's wish. As absurd as the thought is, these same selfish people who purges food when the rest of the world suffers, wants the promise to be honoured.

And the only way to do that is for Hinata to reunite with who she really loves originally.

Sasuke chooses not to respond, tired and done with this line of inquiry already.

"Sudden changes like that are bound to do something. Or has an ulterior motive in it." Gaara observes, his fingers laced together in thought. He voices what everyone in the room is thinking. "I would not be surprised if it gets 'revoked' in the end."

Collective concurrence is heard. The mentor—for he is the only one—from Yumegakure sighs.

And Gaara then glances at Sasuke. His emerald eyes are cold, prophetic. It is like it is warning him.

"You know what would happen in the end Sasuke." He pronounces. And for the first time in his life, Sasuke feels doubt course into his veins just as he is confident and assured that everything should be fine. "You started this. I know you were the one who suggested this whole thing to the Gamemaker's wife and I will assume that you know what will happen in the end."

The Uchiha musters his fiercest glare towards the stoic man but the victor from last year does not flinch. His stance is formidable, guiltless. And his next words are something that Sasuke would forever remember.

"There may be loopholes. But there is always a cost, something left behind when someone tries to squeeze through them. You better remember that Sasuke."

And so for the moment as they wait for the trumpets to play for the announcement, the meeting is adjourned.

...

.

**Next chapter will be Naruto's POV. Feel free and review. I might update soon if I have a less stressful life for this year. Happy 2015 everyone!**

**EDIT: Just removed Naruto's name to save myself some nonsense from some equally nonsensical NaruHina fans. I don't know why but we see their fics in the SasuHina and NaruSaku tag and yet I don't see them get hell for it. But that's a story for another time *yawns. As much as i would like to rant about the unfairness of it all, I just don;t think it's worth it anymore. **


	8. The Resolution

.

**Chapter Eight**

**.**

**.**

**The Resolution**

**.**

**.**

_Naruto_

.

.

**xxxii. Death**

**_I remember tears streaming down your face_**

**_When I said, "I'll never let you go"_**

**_When all those shadows almost killed your light_**

**_I remember you said, "Don't leave me here alone"_**

**_But all that's dead and gone and passed tonight_**

**-Safe and Sound, Taylor Swift. The Hunger Games OST**

**"****Hinata-oneesan would win. I know that. So quit drilling me about the fact that I should be there because neither you nor I would be able to change that. Neesan is an amazing person. Make sure to tell the country that."**

**-Hyuuga Hanabi, interview for The Hunger Games News Crew**

He hears a cannon that day, an ominous prelude (or perhaps it is already a sad symphony, a tragic theme song) to what is afoot. Death, he thinks is such an unpleasant phenomenon that he somewhat understands why he tries to avoid it till the last moment possible. The cut in his side throbs and the red substance he can smell even in his delirium permeates his most deluded senses. It continues to flow, a stark reminder that the Capitol is milking their blood and feasts on it. He wonders how Hinata is, whether her own blood is being poured in this hellish place. Whether like Neji and Tenten did before them, they would die without their voices heard.

When the cannon booms for the first time in several days (he lost count), Naruto does not know what to expect. He knows there are only few of them remaining and it is too much to hope that the signal is not for the hovercraft fetching Hinata's corpse. Munching on the last bun that, in turn the last of his sponsors sent to him days ago, Naruto muses that if Hinata dies there is nothing for him to live for. He never goes back on his word. If you die, I die. He had promised.

In this Games, he always knew that either, he would never come back alive.

That night as the death montage displays up the skies (or the flat cave wall. It doesn't have stalactites or stalagmites. Whichever), the darkness is momentarily lit up. And there is hope in Naruto's heart. The face that is staring at him is the girl from Kiri, not Hinata's as he dreaded. Except she is no longer as ugly as he remembers nor does he feel as relieved as he expected himself to feel. The girl from Kiri's death is only a reminder of the fragility of life. And the fact that he or Hinata might be the next one up.

Except that it seems not the right time for him yet. Nor for Hinata's.

So Naruto hears the announcement and there is that once waning hope burning freely once again.

Hinata is the blaze of the trees, the messenger of freedom from this slavery and like Moses before her, there would be an exodus so shocking that they would never see it coming. Seas would part, rivers would be red and a thousand would be united, all for the sake of liberty that has been so elusive all these years.

And Naruto would be Ariadne to Hinata's Theseus and through the red string of fate that he believes that has gotten them together; Naruto knows that she would get out of this alive.

He would make sure of it.

...

.

.

**xxxiii, Reunion**

**_"_****_Just close your eyes_**

**_The sun is going down_**

**_You'll be alright_**

**_No one can hurt you now_**

**_Come morning light_**

**_You and I'll be safe and sound"_**

**-Safe and Sound, Taylor Swift**

**"****I don't know what to say… Yes, I know that they are reunited. How do I feel about it? Well, I am happy. That means the two of them would come back home, right? Lovers? Naruto and I are just friends. I mean... we just did that because… So yes, I am happy. Naruto and Hinata-san are meant to be and—Oh Geez, who am I kidding?" **

**/Feed got cut off/ -Haruno Sakura, Interview for THGN**

Deidara says that there could be two victors as long as they belong in the same district. Some ploy they have in there. Naruto already knows well not to trust the enemy and for anyone to be deluded of that claim are merely wishful, overly optimistic souls who takes a murderous tyrant's words that they have fair justice for the truth. Doubtlessly at the end of all this, there would be some form of revocation of this "new rule" and there would be betrayal and death, something that Naruto knows this fucked up city enjoys.

He wants to be certain when that comes, he would not be taken by surprise. He would not give them that pleasure.

But ironically enough such is enough to keep him alive for the next few days. Sponsors came so suddenly and it makes him think that they are all waiting for something to happen and he being alive to see it is crucial to the proceedings. Barely a day passes and the rocks from yonder crunches and grunts. Naruto holds his breath and prepares for the worst.

But the death he so awaits never comes into his embrace.

A parachute floats in: slow, painstaking and deliberate. A head then peers from the hole and he sees it break into a familiar countenance of absolute relief.

Deja vu, he finds himself thinking. This has happened before.

And when Hinata squeezes herself through the opening going inside, Naruto could not help but take a moment of gratifying those who went bonkers and decided that playing their own games would be fun.

No longer have the Gamemakers been so distant and objective as they had been. No longer have they been just those watchful eyes that could make virtually anything happen. From their audacity, Naruto now knows how to play their game.

Loopholes, Sasuke had said. There are always loopholes somewhere.

But Naruto knows well that only one of them can ever go through.

The closer sight of him makes Hinata gasp.

He looks beat, he knows. But Naruto, even to the brink of expiring chooses to just shrug.

"Save it." He says this with a tight smile, reaching out weakly to the girl he has never thought that would make his heart beat this fast. Naruto inches closer, rubbing his immobile body painfully on the rocky floor. Hinata kneels beside him and takes his hand. He runs one hand to her unwashed but still exquisite hair. Hinata has always been beautiful but never had he considered himself deserving of her presence until now. "I am so glad you are alive."

And he slowly grabs the back of her neck and...

But Hinata immediately shrugs him off and there is sadness in her eyes as she puts a finger on his lips that is supposed to close the distance with hers. They are the star-crossed lovers and this is their reunion. But her smile is wistful. Her expression a little too broken and Naruto realizes that in the days that he spent in the brink of death inside this cave, a lot of things changed for Hinata out there and he nor Sasuke might no longer be a part of.

"Hinata?"

She has seen more than he did.

"I'm sorry." She tells him, trembling uncontrollably. Her hands are clutching on his clothes desperately and it strikes him that Hinata look more scared than when the gong for the Bloodbath struck. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I almost stopped looking for you. I'm sorry, Naruto-kun. Please forgive me."

So he lets her just hold him in her arms and sob through all the pain and agony, through friends perished and adversaries killed, through lovers dying and lovers waiting, through life wasted and life made miserable. She killed three people, he finds out. He did kill too so he tells her that she is not the only one. But that no longer matters now. And Naruto thinks that Moses did kill too and the blood in Hinata's hands is a necessity to glue her wings together and fly out of this labyrinth.

Naruto prays and hopes throughout the night as Hinata's tears fell that both of them are forgiven.

...

**xxxiv. Living **

**"****Don't you dare look out your window, darling,**

**Everything's on fire**

**The war outside our door keeps raging on**

**Hold on to this lullaby**

**Even when music's gone**

**Gone"**

**-Safe and Sound, Taylor Swift**

**"****Well, isn't she with Sasuke? I always see them together and everyone in the village knows that Sasuke looks happy whenever he is with her. What? That's news to you? Why the hell is she with Naruto anyway?"**

**/deleted scene/ -Yamanaka Ino, interview for THGN**

_Get your hands off her Dobe. That's enough. _

_-S_

The parachute contains medicine and the wonder ointment from all the previous games that makes formidable victors out of the most injured and incapacitated tribute. He remembers this one from Sasuke's own Games. The sword-wielding boy from Kiri almost impaling him. Sasuke barely surviving. The Capitol women in an uproar. A parachute falling. Sasuke as good as new the next day.

Naruto understands that now that they are getting closer to the end, the prices of such goods has skyrocketed to the unbelievable and for one to receive that, he has to give them a reason to believe that you would get out of this alive.

Sasuke is quite good, he notes.

Hinata seems to be motivation enough.

"Wow." He remarks, looking at the girl in question. He does not have to pretend to be amused. "I never knew you would be this popular."

Sasuke's message is lighthearted, taunting even that for the moment Naruto imagines a world where there is no Games, no bloodshed and all they are then would be teenagers vying for each other's attention. A complicated love square perhaps because Sakura-chan loves Sasuke too and Kurenai did say that Hinata might just love Naruto.

He wonders how such tangle of red strings would have been unravelled.

Naruto lets out a loud chuckle as he ponders of the consequences. Hinata looks up sharply while she tends to his now slowly healing leg. And there in the Districts, the citizens die out of Pneumonia, he muses unhappily. Here in the Games as long as you smile for the cameras, you have nine lives and would live to be as stubborn as a cockroach.

He hands her the card that came along with the sponsor present. Hinata takes it in perusal, eyebrows furrowed. Sasuke's message is not exactly the most cryptic code out there. He could not have been more obvious. Naruto just wonders how that went through. The last thing that they need is for Sasuke's fangirls to harbour resentment to a rumour girlfriend. And Hinata's reputation is fragile enough.

Maybe there is a female Gamemaker?

"Seems like someone is bitter." He explains when Hinata frowns in askance to the note. And he conjures up an image of Uchiha Sasuke fuming grumpily because Naruto is the one who is here with the girl. Not him.

Naruto just thinks that the damn temeero should be thankful that he still has a chance.

But he probably does not even know that yet.

"Bitter?" Hinata voices, clueless as ever.

He nods. "Bitter as the burnt bread you tossed me all those years ago. But back then, it had been the best thing that I have ever eaten. You remember that?"

He asks this because he honestly wonders too. Does she remember the nine year old boy who stole around the merchant's square because the young orphaned boy he named Konohamaru is wailing and hungry and scrawny? And the moment that he took him in his arms a year ago from the dumpster, he is already shouldered with the responsibility? That one loaf saved their lives that winter.

The Peacekeeper's merciless whipping is nothing when it comes to the joy of having a family for the first time.

"That saved me back then. But I guess I never got a chance to thank you."

"You can do that now."

"Well, thanks."

Hinata cranes her head sideways, eyes reminiscing. "Do you remember when you saved me from those boys in school all those years ago?"

"Those guys calling you Creepy Eyes... Ow!"

"Oh I must have pressed too hard!" She sounds panicked, blowing cool tendrils of her breath towards the now just slight abrasion. Naruto is amazed on how it went from that ugly bleeding gash to this now bearable... scar. "Gomen."

Seconds later, the wound is completely gone. Zip. Nada. And his leg looks as good as new.

Naruto looks up at Hinata, beaming.

But the girl does not even share his enthusiasm it seems. "The infection has gone too far Naruto-kun. All that magic ointment just did is stop the bleeding. Inside, who knows. It might be too late to stop whatever repercussions it would incur."

Dubiously, he asks. "So how's that bad?"

"Essentially, that is just the mask." She traces her fingers to his now immaculate leg, pressing slightly and Naruto realizes that he would still walk with a limp after this. In other words, next to useless. "Does it hurt?"

"Not as bad as you put it." He tries to say through the pain as Hinata pushes more force on her probing. "Oh damn!"

"You must rest Naruto-kun." She says, touching his forehead. She shoves to his mouth a bun of bread Kurenai sent a while back and eats another.

"You promise you would stay with me?"

"Sure." But she sounds distracted, noncommitant. Her eyes dart away. They look sad. For the umpteenth time, she sighs and leans her back by the rough wall.

Her eyes half-closed, as if she is reluctant to succumb completely to a nap.

Now that the dreams would come.

"Come here Hinata." He offers. "Lie with me."

He turns persistent when she makes the slightest notion to decline. Tired of the long argument that would occur once she remain on her ground, Hinata does.

She lays her head on his chest. Naruto pulls her closer. This is not the first time that they have done this. The first night, he never let her get out of his embrace and the same as before, he feels the tell-tale moisture of her tears falling once again.

So Naruto has to ask. "What did Haku say to you?"

She looks up, startled. "What?"

"I mean, you told me everything but I am sure there is more to that than what you let on. You are actually just beside her when she..."

"Him."

Now Naruto is more than confused. "What?"

"Haku is a boy. Or did I tell you that?"

"Oh." Now, he remembers. Though he still finds that rather daring. He looks at Hinata, searches her face and figures in astonishment that their pair is not the only star-crossed lovers she has been involved in. And that the reason that she might still be alive right now is because this boy Haku cared for her. "Did he love you?" he asks quietly, now feeling ashamed.

He meant that as a deliberate question never expected to be answered.

And to his surprise, Hinata tilts her head to slow, hurting nod. "You know, Haku told me that he always thought he would die with a stranger in this Games."

Naruto waits.

And Hinata continues, eyes closed and her soft voice reverent. "But his last words told me that he just found out that he was wrong."

And Naruto realizes...

Hinata snuggles closer to him and oh, how it feels so natural.

"That he died with a friend. And he is happy."

... that either Hinata might have only come to him to be a victor...

Or that she too, just wants to die with a friend.

...

.

.

**xxxv. Friend**

**"****Just close your eyes**

**The sun is going down**

**You'll be alright**

**No one can hurt you now**

**Come morning light**

**You and I'll be safe and sound"**

**-Safe and Sound, Taylor Swift**

**"****It's about time they see to that rule change anyway. Would have been better if it was like that from the start"**

**-the district's general opinion ("but where is the fun in that" as general Capitol commentary)**

"You wonder why they decided to change the rules?"

"The Suna tributes are still alive. And so are the Land of Tea."

"Do you think we have a chance?"

They are weaponless, injured and next to worthless in a life and death battle. Naruto's breathing continues to grow fainter as he lies down smiling and facing the rocky overhang. Hinata holds his hand, afraid to let go.

But for now, they are both alive.

"Yes, we do." is Naruto's solid and devout response. The determination in his eyes lights even the consuming darkness in their hideout. The shadows has already ceased to scare them. There are a lot of other worse things. It never did fail him. His perseverance. He knows that well. "We have a chance." He reassures the both of them. And that is enough.

By the second day, true enough—he finally manages to stand by himself. Make him write something, he would classify being an invalid as the most horrifying experience in his life. He leans his weight by the cave wall, panting in effort but grinning. Hinata watches his every move like a mother hawk, ready to catch him when he falls. And he does, several times but Naruto is Naruto and he would always keep getting up.

His arms are around her as they finally walk out of the cave, squinting in the daylight they have not seen in days. He hopes it signifies a new morning. They have been lucky that the Gamemakers have not done much to flush them out. But as Naruto could at least stand in his own feet now, they would not take any chances.

And neither would the Gamemaker play any favourites.

He did notice however that they seem to want Hinata alive.

The audience must love her.

"You know what…" he says, as they trudge further along the densely growing foliage. He realizes that the arena must be somewhere in the outskirts of Konoha. Except this does not feel like the Konoha that he knows. It does not smell like the home that he would never get back into. It smells like death, the last thing that everyone would have the privilege of experiencing one way or another.

He looks at Hinata and wonders whether she feels the same way. Whether she wants to go home in the first place, knowing that once upon a time, she did play the Capitol's game and that even after it ends, she would always keep playing it as Sasuke still does.

She glances back at him, eyes wide and questioning. Gone is the naiveté that he associated her with. In epiphany, he thinks that Hinata has never been the unknowing, innocent girl that everyone thought she is after all. She is just a silly, stubborn one.

And crazy beautiful.

He is glad that at least, probably in the last days of his life, he got to know her. Haku must be too, he thinks.

He is meant to die here anyway. He is meant to repay his debt to Hinata and to equalize the favour with Sasuke. He never goes back from his word. He would save her, no matter what because he feels like Hinata would save countless of children when she becomes victor, a better mentor than anyone could ever be.

The kindness is still there somewhere, he wants to think.

"I am glad that you are here with me." He says and his heart beats faster when Hinata smiles for the first time in days.

Parachutes fall when their lips meet for the second time in the Games. And Naruto knows that the world still believes their bullshit.

But then, why does it feel so real?

…

.

**.**

**xxxvi. Real**

**"****Just close your eyes**

**You'll be alright**

**Come morning light,**

**You and I'll be safe and sound..."**

**-Safe and Sound, Taylor Swift**

**"****I never knew Hinata is capable of this much."**

**-Hyuuga Hiashi, interview for THGN**

The faces of the tributes from the Land of Tea shows later that night, both perishing seconds apart from each other. Naruto stares with horror as the Capitol anthem plays in the background, faces frozen in time in an undeserving eulogy that just ends up reminding only the districts, not the pretentious tyrants that they are so young. So fucking young.

They heard a cannon sometime early in the afternoon so they sort of expected this. But that does not diminish the apprehension and wariness they are feeling.

"What happened to them?" Hinata thinks out loud, her voice toned down and eyes downcast. Naruto thinks that he would like to see those sad, white eyes light up with happiness again. But such is a futile wish. Nobody probably ever will. The world is cruel that way.

Sasuke, for one would have no such luck.

"The ones from Suna." Naruto suggests, burying his face on her hair and keeping her even closer than before. The night is a chilly one and they have nothing else but themselves. Hinata welcomes the warmth. "We have to be careful."

"Hai." She concurs but nothing more is said of the matter.

He could tell that after all this time, Hinata has already established to herself as well that she does not want to die too.

Five left.

And this fact makes Hinata optimistic somehow that those other three might just end up killing themselves and she would not have to see blood again. She still is naïve after all. But Naruto is not one to burst anyone's bubble.

"We would be victors Naruto-kun, right?" He actually is surprised that she does explicitly state that. In her eyes is hope. In her eyes is a bright future. "We actually have a chance."

He smiles as brightly as he could and kisses her parted lips. "Yes, we will." He says and he makes sure there is conviction in his voice, that she believes and hangs on to every word that he says, that she would listen. Because being incongruous is the key and if Hinata still can afford to think like that, then good for her.

Because Naruto just no longer can do so.

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Not much reviews eh? I do not mind except that it feels rather demotivating to receive flames most of the time instead of encouragements. But I believe I receive enough of those favorite and follows alerts from time to time to still be reminded that people are still reading this. I am still writing this, you know. :D

NaruHina shippers could be quite silly indeed. And by the way if anyone is wondering, yes I am currently writing a fanfic with NaruHina as the main couple. I like the pairing enough if fans would only not ruin the fun for me. That is why this fic has some undertones of NaruHina. SasuHina shippers in general accept most other Hinata couples.

We are almost coming to an end to Part One. More SasuHina in the next chapter. Just this time I am focusing more to the character development than the romance.

Thanks to the few who reviewed and i hope I get to see you again soon *winks


	9. The Finale

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**Chapter Nine**

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Hinata

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**The Finale**

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**xxxvii. Survivors**

**"****So here you are, two steps ahead and staying on guard**

**Every lesson forms a new scar**

**They never thought you'd make it this far**

**But turn around (turn around), oh they've surrounded you"**

**-Eyes Open, Taylor Swift, Hunger Games OST**

**"****This is what I am mostly afraid of. That I would blaming everyone who saved me for doing what they did. I wish I was the one who died but then again, I guess I have no right to."**

**-Hyuuga Hinata**

And then there are five.

The morbidity of the phrase alone reminds Hinata that in these Games, nobody ever survives, that in the end they are all a matter of irrelevant statistics and nothing but numbers. Kumogakure tributes are known mostly for singing this song, slashing and pushing, making sure they live longer than most unfortunates did. They used to be the twenty-four fattened pigs offered by each of the vanquished districts and now, a few more are about to be slaughtered before the eyes of many, out to be devoured by the eyes of those who are just greedy.

And then there were five.

The clock ticks down to the most awaited finale. Sponsor gifts has now gone down to the infrequent, seeing that even a matchstick would cost millions now. Most likely, the betting would be everybody's current tasks. Easy money for most, even in the districts. Her father mostly reaps most of the profit, always the man with a good eye for a winner.

She wonders whether he would bet on her.

"That boy… he is a survivor."

Probably not.

But she is on the top five, like Neji had once been. By now, reporters would be interviewing the families, asking them one more time what made these tributes tick and whether its in the Capitol's best interest to spare them until the final showdown, where skill finally matters and cunning would save you.

Until there was only one remaining, named victor and be everybody's favorite.

Hinata has seen it happen several times. An extravagant home in the victor's village, instant popularity, mentoring kids for the next year's Games, your loved ones dying for some unknown reasons, you selling your body to save the person you think you love.

But then again, nobody ever lives.

Oh, Sasuke.

_And then there are none. _

The Hunger Games is death, whether you survive it or not, whether you win or you lose. What is survival anyway but an illusion crafted by victors who thought they could fool everyone with a mask? Sasuke had been pretty good at hiding behind glamour and wealth until he kissed her, until he buried himself inside her, until he made love with her. How he was torn on what is inevitable in any case, where he regrets that he is not the one who died instead.

Whether Hinata lives or not, she would be killed softly… softly… softly…anyway.

But Sasuke had always been the stubborn one, always wanting to keep away what is bound to happen in any case, because he said he would not let anyone be taken from him ever again and he only has her.

But Hinata is already taken, devoured by the wolves that are her fate. Forever, she would be like Sasuke who is the Capitol's and she would never be Sasuke's because the moment, she was born in this world, she is doomed to always be one of the oppressed.

And Naruto, day by day, being eaten by the infection from that vile virus that she knew is in every Capitol-issued blade. If you were so much as scratched, then you are no good. Even if you survive, you would die anyway. That is why she knows being a healer in these Games is futile. That is why she knows from the first moment that she realized what she has done, that she is useless. That is why her father slapped her hard that day in the Justice Building.

You would be killed softly… softly… softly.

And the whole world would see it.

And Sasuke would see it.

And Hanabi…

She does not know when to break the news.

It is a wonder she lasted these long.

But then, others did not in her place.

Haku…

Three o'clock. Eighteenth day. The sun shining proudly away from the horizon. The girl from Suna perishes. Thunderstorms rumbling. Team Konoha taking shelter in the caves again, wrapped in each other's warmth. No other information as the anthem concludes. And then there were four. Naruto wonders why.

A parachute falls as Hinata kisses his questions away. His grin is so heartbreaking, so stupidly happy, as if he thinks she likes it too… but doesn't she? Sasuke is watching. Sasuke does not like this… Naruto kisses her and his smile… oh god, his smile. Sasuke never smiles like that. She never let Sasuke kiss her either.

"Don't think about it, yeah Hinata?" Naruto murmurs, nose digging through her hair. He breathes deeply and she is reminded around that time earlier when he whispered on her ear ever oh so softly that damn it Hinata. This feels so true. This is no longer an act. Do you believe we have a chance? A question to which she does not even have an answer to. "I won't think about it."

But of course there is only one logical hypothesis on whatever really transpired. She remembers the boy from Yumegakure as an intimidating giant, painted face contorted into a perpetual scowl during the announcement of the scores while wielding a lethal looking axe in the training room. The number ten revolves below his photo with Deidara's commentary about the Land of Dreams getting lucky for once a prophetic enticement to any sponsor. They have not won any Games since… forever. And then the Suna girl dies.

And then there were four.

And then Naruto and Hinata are the only pair qualified for the new rule.

Naruto thinks aloud that they are quite the survivors, having lasted this long. Hinata does not think so but she answers by kissing him enthusiastically because she realizes she likes how he tastes like home, unlike Sasuke who smells too perfect, feels too perfect, makes her feel undeserving, filthy even.

But Naruto is hers and hers in this ordeal alone.

Does that make her selfish?

She does not know why she does that.

Sasuke is watching.

Perhaps she wants him to feel the pain when he told her that she is going home, that she would be victor, that she would be an Uchiha too. The pain to know that twenty-three other people would die in order for her to live and that Sasuke has to kiss more men and women for him to see her again.

She wants him to see what he has done.

Selfish indeed.

Both of them.

Why can't he just allow her to pass on?

And why is she not allowing herself?

She would never know why she ran away.

Survivors.

She wants to see him again and in her hands, she feels the tingle of the blood she took to get closer to that dream and Hinata cannot help but think that perhaps Naruto would be one of them soon, his heart broken and his body dying softly.. softly… softly… because Hinata cannot do anything about it, like he is saying she once did.

You saved me once.

She cannot save anyone now.

"We would be victors, Naruto-kun right?" The question is hesitant, doubtful. No one could blame her, she knows. But the words hold the hope she does not feel. The Capitol said they could but then again, the guy from Yumegakure scored a ten and the other one would be coming for them soon. "We actually have a chance."

Sasuke said she is a bad liar.

But why does she know that now as she failed to express the truth, the world would believe it?

A secret makes a woman, woman?

And she is suddenly a woman now?

The words make Naruto smile and he kisses her and the hardened look in his eyes tells her that in all the act they have been pulling off, Naruto knows all along and that with a start, she wonders how could Naruto could see so easily through her.

"Yes, we would be victors." He tells her and that is when she ponders what victory means to him exactly. Is it winning the Hunger Games?

Or a much larger war than that?

….

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**xxxviii. Actor**

**"****The tricky thing**

**Is yesterday we were just children**

**Playing soldiers**

**Just pretending**

**Dreaming dreams with happy endings"**

**-Eyes Open, Taylor Swift, **

**"****So I died? But I have my legacy to survive what I chose not to. Save her, guys. I just got us an ambassador."**

**-Uzumaki Naruto's letter to the Shinobi Alliance**

Who is being fooled?

Real or not real?

Naruto's grin is as bright as ever but behind it lurks the reality of how the world made him to be, the irises of his blue eyes darker than ever as he stares at her when he thinks she does not know. But Hyuuga got eyes in the back of their heads, thanks to the freak called genetics and she realizes that there is more to Naruto than everyone, even her thinks there is.

People show their true side when people's back are turned against them.

And Naruto has been lying all along.

To the world, to her or even to himself— Hinata cannot really tell.

And what is worse is that, Hinata understands.

He thinks she does not see when he winces and walks with a limp as he treads just behind her in the canopy of the forest. His leg is getting worse but no, Naruto would never tell the world that. He thinks she does not hear him sigh when she momentarily freezes during their kisses. He knows that she still is hesitant but no, he does not want to tell the world—or himself—that. He thinks he is not so obvious when he forgets to be explicit that he loves her because Hinata can see that every move and affection is calculated. The world is meant to think they are star-crossed lovers and she is meant to think so too.

But Naruto has long since realized that it has become an act for both of them, a dance to survive, which in itself is a lie.

But then Naruto is the type to say that he would never give up.

That he would never go back on his word.

That this is way of life.

He is lying to himself then.

For what is the way of life in a game of death?

Liar.

And Hinata knows that because she is too.

Real or not real?

Who is being fooled?

Haku fooled everyone but then he got killed in the end.

Is that what happens when you tell the truth?

What truth lies in these kisses anyway?

What is Naruto's ulterior motive?

What will Naruto make happen in the finale?

…

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**xxxix. Thunder**

**"****It's a showdown (showdown) and nobody comes to save you now**

**But you've got something they don't**

**Yeah you've got something they don't**

**You've just gotta keep your eyes open"**

**-Eyes Open**

**"****I guess you think you got it worse. I electrocuted five kids with the fucking thunder, Hinata! Do not fucking tell me I don't understand!" **

**-Uchiha Sasuke**

She gets her answer when lightning strikes the cave.

The rocks split into two neat crevices in the rumbling impact, strategically missing them but the explosion leaving them gasping in absolute surprise. Ironically enough the skies that had been hidden by the overhang was bright, no evidence of where the wrath of Thor originated from. But before them is the burnt husk of what once was a reliable shelter, razed to the ground by the will of the devil and both know that the next one would come without warning.

A silent annihilation. A clean kill.

That was a warning.

Neji and Tenten when the avalanche came received no such thing.

"They are flushing us out." Naruto implores, pulling the stunned Hinata away from the remnants of the once majestic formation. She trips in her astonishment. He stumbles in his affliction. Behind them a series of thunder strikes boom. The earth quakes.

"Hinata!" Naruto screams as for a moment, her hand slips away from his grasp. On their feet, fissures open and the glimpse of hell opens its cavernous mouth to them. For a man whose leg is turning bluer and bluer by the minute, Naruto runs fast. Behind them, there is an unidentifiable roaring. Neither brave to look back.

After what seem like an eternity of catastrophe, they come across the clearing. The Cornucopia stands in all its glory, unharmed by everything that has happened in the arena so far. The more useless and irrelevant supplies lies strewn on the grass floor, untouched. No evidence blood left from the Opening Day but Hinata feels like she could almost smell it.

All of a sudden, the roaring, the grumble, the sound of thunder stops completely.

And the bright sun shining on their artificial sky no longer feels out of place.

The two teens could barely sigh in relief as two cannons follow.

Boom.

Boom.

Naruto stares up at the sky, knowing that after such proclamation and because, finally they are in the finale, the confirmation would come soon. The skies light up. The anthem plays. And in the montage are the two male tributes that she thought would hunt them down to their death, frozen in their youthful grace and doomed not to see adulthood ever.

Those two were dead…

Just like that…

And then there were two…

"I think they were already fighting." Naruto remarks, breathing hard and his fists clenched. His eyes are closed and his chest frantically rising up and down. He does not sound relieved. "They probably have killed each other off even before all that thunder happened. It is just a matter of luring us back again in the centre of the arena, where announcements of victory would be more, what's-the-word… poignant."

He chuckles disbelievingly, sinking to his knees on the ground. "Poignant, my ass. Woooh! We won eh?"

He sounds like he does not even believe it.

And then there were two…

Naruto sounds like he is waiting for something.

And true enough…

They look up as they hear Sasori clear his throat, the mechanic hiss of the microphone making things more dramatic than it already is. Hinata's heart is on her throat, waiting for what she realizes has always been this Games' theme.

"Attention Tributes."

Deception. Haku started it. Hinata and Naruto continued it. The Capitol will end it.

"The rule about two tributes being victors has been revoked."

In these Games, it has always been about lies.

"Only one tribute could be a victor…"

The rule revoked. The hopes crashed. Only one of them would come home and Hinata already knows why.

Only liars could hoodwink another liar.

And the Capitol has been lying all these time.

What irony!

"May the odds be ever in your favour."

And they hear the same rumble once again but this time, it sounds less threatening. The ground on right side of the clearing splits into two as a platform rises from underground, whirring loudly. On the dark metal table lie two sets of kunais, the standard weapon of any Konoha tribute and any citizen's way of warding off hostile animals in the deep woods. Hinata knows how to use it. Naruto does too, more adept than anyone could ever be.

She looks at him and sees something in his eyes that she cannot identify, is afraid to identify.

He walks towards the table. She follows. He takes a kunai and by instinct she does too.

"They flushed us out for a reason indeed." He remarks, his voice full of regret. He points the sharp tip of the weapon towards her and it glints with the menacing glow of Hades. She might have imagined it but even the wondrous poison that has killed so many tributes in the past few years quivers amidst her shaky breath "They want to end it where it started. Poignant. The final showdown."

One of us has to die.

And then there will be one.

Naruto rushes forward.

…

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**.**

**xl. One**

**"****Everybody's waiting for you to breakdown**

**Everybody's watching to see the fallout**

**Even when you're sleeping, sleeping**

**Keep your ey-eyes open"**

**-Eyes Open**

**"****They won this battle. But we still have a war we won't concede. Right, Naruto-kun?"**

**-Yuuhi Kurenai**

He slices up the right side of her face, taking away her eye. Blood flows and it throbs but it does not kill her. He did not even mean to, she could tell. Hinata plunges the kunai, deep inside his chest in automatic defense. She does not even know why. Naruto spits out blood, coughs uncontrollably. She did not mean to. She did not mean to. She did not. Did not. Did not. Not.

But it kills him anyway.

Naruto slumps forward, pushing her down forcibly but he does not do what she expected him to. Hinata goes down with his dying weight, wrestled against the very man who just… did he really attack her? For now, he does not really try to bring her to the afterlife that they are destined for. Like she deserves to. Naruto caresses her cheek, kisses her lips and whispers what she never thought she would ever hear. One last time.

Thank you.

"I want you to remember me everytime you look at the mirror." He whispers hoarsely, his eyes sad and with the last of his strength, he pulls out his crystal necklace and forces it into Hinata's trembling hands. "I want you to remember me, dammit. I'm better than Sasuke. You're not a fucking Uchiha. You're a victor Hinata. You're my victor and the world will see that."

He lies on top of her and does not let her get away. Naruto's heavy frame pushes further and for a moment, she is reminded of the position she saw him with Sakura on live TV. The position Sasuke was on the last night in the Capitol with her. Except that although both know they are dying, it is not happening quite now.

"Damn. I wish we have more time. But there's no way. There is just no way. I am going to die anyway. Everyone would end up dead. Haha. But I guess I might as well go down with a bang."

His left arm rises weakly towards the sky and she sees him prop up his tremulous middle finger up in the air. He stabs it repeatedly to an empty atmosphere, gritting his teeth and the pained wince does not stop him from the series of expletives that comes from his mouth because dammit, this would be the last time. He is dying. And he always wanted to say this.

"Fuck the Capitol. Fuck this world. Fuck everyone for doing this to us!"

And because this is the finale, the cameras would not turn away.

The camera would hear what he wants to say.

He nuzzles his face towards her neck, inhales sharply and Hinata feels the telltale warmth of his blood seeping from his chest wound, where the kunai she currently is holding tightly is still very much buried. Naruto's smile is still heartbreaking and as the light slowly leaves his beautiful, blue eyes…

"Make them pay, Hinata." He whispers and she realizes that amidst her hysterical sobbing, she is the only one who can hear that. "Make sure me and Haku and the rest of those people who died for you to live would be avenged. Never go back on your word. Promise me that. Dammit, promise me that you will never be like them! Because… because…"

Hinata screams.

The hovercraft soars above, lifting Naruto's prone body up in the air but she holds tight and she too, is taken away. All is quiet. Twenty days, fourteen hours, sixteen minutes and five seconds. And Hyuuga Hinata of Konohagakure, with four kills and a broken heart is named the victor of the Seventy Fourth Hunger Games.

(TBC)

**It makes me glad that the next chapter would conclude the first part and yet, you still are with me in this journey. As you can see, I am trying to illustrate on what is happening in Hinata's mind thus giving you an idea on how she would be like in err... "Catching Fire". She would be unstable and thus begins my favorite SasuHina trope where Sasuke plays shrink and does not succeed most of the time. *winks. **

**I really adore the reviews that came with the last chapter. I didn't expect it to be quite honest that people are still reading this fic and that I would get an overwhelming amount of support considering the subject matter. It makes me really, really happy. But enough of that, the tenth chapter would be the last installment for Part One featuring The Aftermath in Sasuke's perspective. Next, we go to the Quarter Quell Series which I would still upload Chapter 11 here to avoid confusion. Any suggestions would be welcome but from then on, SasuHina would be the game. **

**Please review if you have the time. Chapter 10 would be uploaded depending on the mood, which I tell you varies. **


	10. The Aftermath

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**Chapter Ten**

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**Sasuke**

**.**

**.**

**.**

**The Aftermath**

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.

**Victory**

**"Run, run, run away**

**Buy yourself another day**

**A cold wind's whispering secrets in your ear**

**So low only you can hear**

**Run, run, run and hide"**

**-Kingdom Come, The Civil War, The Hunger Games OST**

**"Vanish, with the roar of thunder."**

**-Uchiha Sasuke**

The dramatic end of this year's Hunger Games reminds Sasuke of when he first emerged from the tropical island that he was stuck in several days, surviving and killing children with his twelve year old, half-naked body. The dried blood from his katana cleaned off from the night's heavy rain. The lightning boomed in the distance. The sky sobbed. Below him, the hovercraft lifted five prone bodies, all dead through silent heart attacks and lightning jolts. Painless and a quick way to go. At the time, Sasuke felt like he finally did something right.

The similarity ends in the terrain and the background. Hinata won the worst way possible.

The Capitol had been fastidious of his victory back then, or at the very least, in the way he chose to orchestrate it. Sasuke later learned that he was meant to be the beautiful young slasher who slit throats and severed heads with a charming smile, his body covered in blood and a semblance of a red, dangerous cloak. The sponsors expected him to seduce the eighteen-year old Career from Kiri in the finale, choking the life out of her eyes as he came inside her. The Capitol wanted him to win as the sadistic, ruthless, attractive killing machine he was supposed to be, not to mercy-kill the rest with a spark of unexpected genius.

The Capitol does not want Naruto to die. That was evident enough in the angry and protesting sighs he heard the moment they announced the revocation of the new rule. It was meant to test their "love", for Hinata to come up with a clever way for both of them to survive. Or for them to think that suicide is the better option than to kill each other off before the Gamemakers interrupt and they were made heroes of this tragedy. But Naruto ends up impaled by Hinata's hand and this is by his own volition.

The Gamemakers cannot control everything.

_There are loopholes in the arena. _

Naruto did not show what the Capitol wants to see. And he knew it, lifting his fingers in the air in the long forgotten "fuck you" sign and kissing Hinata for the one last time whilst telling her that in this damn, cruel world, we were just not meant to be. "Maybe some other time, Hinata." He had said and that tragic-hero face he made at the last, captured moment will stay in the screens for the rest of the year.

It is a little known fact that Naruto's death provoked a revolt from the Seam kids, those of whom believing that the Capitol should never have played such trick all for the sake of a good show in the first place. Nobody could blame them and even as the Peacemakers tried to pacify the situation, the rascals still managed to inspire a statement. This was never meant to happen. Naruto was not supposed to die. This world sucks big time.

The story was covered up but the animosity as for the outcome was leaked in any case.

The Capitol went wild.

Green-haired mothers cried hysterically. "This is so unfair!". Men shed tears because the current trend is that if you don't feel a bit of sympathy in the way the beautiful story of Hinata and Naruto ended, you would be a heartless fool. And nobody in the Capitol ever wants to be labelled heartless or a fool. The younger generation are upset. "So we also don't have a chance for love in this world?" is the raised question. And in every rhetoric follows another more complex one. "What kind of world do we live in anyway?"

What kind of world do they live in? A world where you butcher children for your enjoyment, make incubus out of twelve-year olds and kill the dream of two young lovers who were just looking forward to getting married and being back in Konoha and…

Hinata's victory made a latest fad is for one to dress in the colours of grieving. Death is the new black. And around the country, Naruto is being quoted as he confessed that he would have preferred to be in a different world with Hinata, where he and Haku would have had a chance to be rivals. The streets are no longer as bright. And the Capitol behaves like they are apologizing, a first.

"Avenge me."

And everybody conveniently ignores that whispered plea.

But for the first time in history, the Capitol finally began to question whether what is happening is right and still "fun". And amidst the grieving masses and the harsh wrath of those that hailed from the Seams and the districts realizing that they can do something like Naruto said they could, perhaps that is enough.

For Sasuke, he is just glad that Hinata was the one who lived.

_Make them pay. _

And that reminds him…

…

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**Scar**

**"Somewhere no one else can find**

**Tall trees bend and lean pointing where to go**

**Where you will still be all alone**

**Don't you fret, my dear**

**It'll all be over soon**

**I'll be waiting here for you"**

**-Kingdom Come**

**"If being like them it what it means to be beautiful, then I'd rather be ugly for the rest of my life. That's exactly the thing Naruto-kun would say. And if we have to step on each other to be alive, I'd rather be dead."**

**-Hyuuga Hinata**

Hinata chooses to keep the scar.

"But we could remove it!" the stylist shrill protest makes Hinata's otherwise eerily composed countenance visibly flinch. One hand strongly holding off the colourful woman's persistent wrist, Hinata swats her off with finality. And the authority in her motion shuts them up. Her exhausted eyes have the glare that Sasuke does not recall ever seeing. But then again, he never saw Hinata this defiant.

Hinata had not been a victor before.

And she is now.

The Hunger Games change you.

"I don't care." Neither her syntax or her tone of voice are familiar either. The Hunger Games change you. Victor-Hinata is born. She frowns at the people crowded around her bedside as if she does not want them there. "It stays where it is."

The scar runs vertically across her eye, evidence of a vicious attack and that which a lasting brand that she has survived. They have managed to restore the eye but Hinata has been explicit in her instructions not to touch anything else. This is not at all uncommon as when Sasuke became a victor, he thought of not having his severed left arm restored. It was just that Capitol woman wanted him to work at his best and he could only please them with both hands. He had no choice. They like to chew on his new fingers. Given the choice, he would have preferred to get rid of it.

Naruto's attack however had been anything but vicious. Her face turns to the side and the now healing laceration now is just a brown line tracing her white eyes. Hinata must have thought that this is the least she could do.

_I want you to remember me every time you look at the mirror. _

Or, what is more accurate is that Naruto wants the world to remember his unnecessary death because the world shall see a victor's face. And by telling Hinata that, he is implying that she should hold their gaze with a will of fire.

Or perhaps he is just a narcissi who wants his name engraved in history books, the most memorable Hunger Games.

"Just let her be." Sasuke says and his voice must have startled her because she looks up and appeared entirely too surprised to see him. She did not notice him. She is too absorbed. She is thinking about Naruto. Sasuke decides to let that pass. "It's her choice and besides wouldn't that gain her more supporters?

The irony in his voice goes unnoticed by the Capitol-appointed staff who all nod enthusiastically about Hinata still being as beautiful as ever and fuzzes about the victory interview with Deidara later tonight. She would wear a black gown tonight, the colours of lamentation. The whole world would once again fall to their knees in grief. But Kurenai's red eyes penetrate his soul, accusing and implicating. And it does not help at all that Hinata does not appreciate what he said.

They stare at each other for several moments, the unsaid words floating overhead and the unasked questions a weight to bear before Hinata just breaks it off without a word and closes her eyes.

Sasuke leaves the room.

He meets Otsutsuki Toneri in the hallways, blue Hyuga eyes narrowed and kimono as prim and proper as ever. His stance is rigid, making him taller than when Sasuke last saw him and the imposing authority makes the air heavy. Toneri is one of the most influential men in the Capitol, a lineage that formerly held office until the current president took over. In a matter of years, it is predicted that he would regain back the mantle that his ancestors had worked hard for in the last century and this powerful man wants to marry Hinata as part of that decree.

Sensing the question that he has been asked so many times since Hinata won, Sasuke walks briskly towards him, hand proffered and offering the fake smile he has long since perfected after years of dealing with these brand of assholes.

Toneri accepts the hand, shakes it with a condescending smile and begins the dreaded conversation with the affable charm of a politician. "I want to see Hinata." is his carefully veiled demand. The white-haired man's voice could not hide the imminence of this order, his impatience. Toneri is one of those who were glad that Naruto died but they are still a minority. "Lead her to me."

Inside his jacket pocket, Sasuke clenches his fist. But he tries to keep his smile from faltering. "She's resting." He explains. And he tries to make himself sound like anything he says matters because in truth if the main sponsor insists… "You'd see her later at the interview anyway. There's a lot for us to do before she shows up in public."

Prepping a tribute up is always something that any Capitol-bred man understands. Always people who revel in a good, perfectly-scripted show.

Sasuke is about to walk past the man but Toneri frowns, unsatisfied with this dismissal. His voice is as composed as ever but the inflection is anything but calm and collected. "I hear she does not want to take that ugly scar off."

Sasuke freezes, his blood running cold.

Toneri looks over the floor to ceiling windows displaying the Capitol main street, huge billboards with Hinata's tribute picture glowing in prominence. And the last time she was interviewed in public. The Girl on Fire, she was called back then whilst twirling with the glowing dress and holding hands with the equally glowing Naruto. Right now, she was more like the scorned, broken woman. But she definitely is on fire, Sasuke thinks and it makes him angry because Hinata was never supposed to be a tribute, she was never supposed to be a victor. She was not supposed to be looking at him like that.

Maybe Naruto was right. They were not supposed to be born in this world.

But Hinata never was, is, would be ugly.

"No wife of mine should bear that scar." Toneri concludes and the dissatisfaction in his expression is apparent. "As soon as we get married…"

"You fucking bastard." Sasuke seethes because Hinata is never supposed to be a tribute or a victor or this vile man's or anyone's sextoy and Sasuke feels damn selfish for keeping her alive for this people to devour and he promised Naruto to protect Hinata and he certainly would do that and so he launches his fist.

He never felt so free and liberated in his entire life.

…

.

.

**Funeral**

**"Run fast as you can**

**No one has to understand**

**Fly high across the sky from here to kingdom come**

**Fall back down to where you're from"**

**-Kingdom Come**

**"I protect her from the enemies inside. You promise me to protect her from the real ones, okay? They're the more dangerous in the bunch. Them, I mean."**

**-Uzumaki Naruto**

The news that presidential candidate Toneri was sent to the hospital by the mentor of the year and Capitol's golden boy, Uchiha Sasuke travelled fast.

The controversy about the furious altercation surprises Hinata in her interview however and her wide eyes makes that obvious as she sits before Deidara after he fails to congratulate her. A testament that he is also following the current trend. That there is nothing to congratulate Hinata about. The girl has lost everything and when Sasuke once thought that these people had been painfully oblivious of what really was going on, he realizes that they know all along that she is about to lose more.

And it would have been better if she just died, hm?

For the first time in history, the Capitol felt pity for their victors.

Hinata's eyes sparks upon the question and in an instant, her eyes quickly searches for his. They connect and in that swirl of eye of contact, she questions him, looking dubious. But in a second, she is listening to Deidara's senseless quips once again. In so short a moment, they are able to understand each other like never before and Sasuke realizes that this might be the beginning of another bond.

"I heard Toneri-san called you ugly."

The crowd lets up an collected, agitated gasp, with some of whom muttering unrecognizable snorts about spoiled brats and Hinata-san never ugly. Over the projected screen flashes a series of bashing tweets. Toneri is to be incarcerated and eaten up by the public because of this "obscene" remark. And Hinata is meant to be glorified by her supporters.

Naruto is being remembered.

The dobe is succeeding and Sasuke does not know what to think.

"I am sure Naruto-kun would not think like that." is her soft answer after a moment of pause. It is the first she spoke since the victory and the viewers absorb her laconic words with zealous gusto, mascaraed eyes wide in happiness and arms waving in cheers. She mentioned Naruto!, celebrates the ever increasing tweets. This short reply prompts the screens to turn back to the reruns of the most memorable deaths in the Games. The worlds stare, transfixed.

Deidara for once, is not laughing as the cameras and the recordings rolled.

All respect for the dead. Is that even possible?

The Kumo girl collapsing in delirium. Hinata trying her best to help. The next frame later showing how she lets the snake bite the girl. How she just stares in fear but doing nothing. The seal lifting. Naruto confronting her later in the caves (the most downloaded scenes), asking why she let her die. _i don't know._ Naruto forgiving her.

The girl from Iwa struggling with the elder and slightly larger Hinata. The better-trained girl almost winning, until Hinata instinctively pressed a pressure point. And she turned the fight over her favour. _I did not mean to, _was her unspoken agony. The crowd croons in sympathy.

Hinata unable to protect Haku. The girl from Dream executed. Hinata grieving over a funeral of flowers, saying something about beauty and how it was never meant to be here. _I'm sorry. _The pyre burns.

Naruto deliberately meeting the blade. It is no secret. A few more angles and it is more apparent than daylight. Naruto chose to die and the viewers once again shed tears. _Naruto-kun. _

Amidst all of these, Hinata makes sure she stands strong.

The rest of the interview is a eulogy to both Naruto and Haku. And because Hinata is a victor, the camera would not look away from her. With the flourish that Sasuke never would have associated with her before, she shares their last words to her. The whole world would hear it because it is mandatory to listen to whatever the victor says.

This is the part when she is supposed to thank the Capitol for letting her live.

But Hinata does not do that.

"Anything beautiful is not supposed to be in this world of ours." She says, instead and Sasuke cannot help but think that she sounds like a victor now. That she sounds like Naruto is putting words on her mouth. "Naruto-kun, Haku-kun and those other tributes. They were beautiful. Very beautiful. They were children. And I know I am ugly." She runs her fingers over her scar. Poignant touch. She ignores the Capitol's dissent and emphasizes. "That is probably the reason why I live on."

Hinata regards the rest of the world and those white eyes bore into numerous souls, millions of whom had been grieving because she is the victor, not any of their tributes. And Sasuke realizes that in her words, she is asking for forgiveness and at the same time standing tall to justify what she did. "This is an ugly world we live in. And we are all ugly."

And so the crowd once again goes wild.

…

.

.

**Nightmares**

**"Don't you fret, my dear**

**It'll all be over soon**

**I'll be waiting here for you**

**For you, for you"**

**-Kingdom Come**

**"It's not like we think that she is the saviour right away or something. We are aiming to have Naruto as our Mockingjay, to have him lead the army against the people he has always despised. But Naruto saved Hinata and he always has a good eye for character. He must have seen something special in her and we aim to expedite that and make the world see it too."**

**-Nara Shikamaru, resident strategist of the Shinobi Alliance.**

Going back home to the village gave Sasuke and Hinata enough time to be alone and talk things out that was left unsaid. But Sasuke does not even know what to say. And Hinata, somehow does not care enough to ask. The train ride back to Konoha closes the literal distance and yet the gape between them continues to expand. Life is a fissure, he remembers his niisan saying sagely. Problems would make an already strong bond stronger. And with the same principle, it will end up breaking a fragile one.

But the third night, a shrill scream breaks the quiet night. It is all too familiar. Sasuke is there in Hinata's room before anyone else and he closes the door behind him.

The pitiable state of the seventy-fourth victor the Capitol worships now should not have surprised him. Tougher men broke down in face of such nightmares and undeniably, he is still one of those. Hinata's mouth is poised into an agonized, voiceless scream, her hand raking her hair desperately and her eyes holding the stare of an unseen enemy. The girl who did not flinch as she watched death unfold on the screen once again is now breaking down so fast and Sasuke is unsure whether he could put her back together again.

He only stands there watching her, letting her know that he cares and knows that she does not want to be touched this time. That like him she is broken. That he understands. But he would always be there when…

_Don't kiss me. _

… when she is ready.

The next morning during breakfast, Hinata acts like nothing happened and the rest of the crew does too. But neither made any attempt for small talk and the silence hangs as the forest of Konoha looms for the awaited welcome. Sasuke sits beside her, observing and wondering as to when she would snap, when she would break down…

Or when she would look in his eyes again.

He could not bring himself to ask.

For after all, what right does he have?

He is not Naruto. He is not Haku. He is just Sasuke. Like her, ugly like the rest of the world because he lived through the nightmare. He killed. She killed.

The Gates of the village open and as Hinata stands with the rest to greet the whole cheering village, Sasuke braces himself for the new chapter in their lives. Hanabi runs towards the platform, tear-stained face beaming. Hiashi follows behind with a polite nod to all of the entourage. The villagers chant her name in unison and even those from the Seam wave in welcome. Hanabi and Hinata hug. The Capitol reporters take shot of every moment, cameras blinking in impossible speed. Hinata comes home as a hero, that is what they want the world to think.

Hanabi clings to her sister and for the first time albeit sadly, Sasuke sees Hinata smile. She meets his eyes once again and in those pearly depths, he witnesses what she always wanted to say but has no courage to say. That despite everything, she is thankful. Thankful that she is alive. Thankful that she could live. Because her life is no longer just her own. And thank you Sasuke, at least for giving me a chance.

In relief, he sighs to himself.

So maybe there is hope.

….

.

.

**Change**

**"Run, Run, Run Away**

**Run, Run, Run Away"**

**-Kingdom Come**

**"I have a feeling… that these Games would change the world. Don't you think you should back down before it's too late?"**

**-Gaara, in the Quarter Quell Interviews**

Feeble hopes such as this are meant to be crushed however and some promises are to be shattered. Sasuke finds Hinata crouched silently at their usual meeting place, her fingers twiddling at the Victor's pendant that glowed brilliantly in the sunlight. Sasuke did not know that she kept it and never noticed that it was not hanging down around her neck. But the Uchiha pendant is clasped on her right hand and she is reaching now to give it back to him.

He stares at the extended arm, eyeing the heirloom he gave her. _You're an Uchiha now. _And he never felt rejected in his whole life. "Why?"

"Things change Sasuke-kun." She mutters softly and the wind billows on her long hair. The birds whistle. The leaves rustle. And the breeze takes away the impact of her words. One hand rubbing the scar slightly once again and Hinata exhales with apparent regret. "We just could not be…"

"Are you telling me that what we did doesn't mean anything to you?" He did not mean to be so forthcoming but amidst his beating heart, his tongue is loose. Sasuke grabs her wrist forcefully, pulling her towards him. He closes her fingers to the crest and wills her hands not to let go, never… "Look at me, Hinata."

Hinata avoids his glare and struggles to no avail from his hold. Sasuke does not budge. "Sasuke-kun…" she pleads. Sasuke is too angry to realize what he is doing. "You don't understand!"

"I guess you think you got it worse. I electrocuted five kids with the fucking thunder, Hinata! Do not fucking tell me I don't understand!"

"I killed Naruto-kun!" she finally snaps and for a moment, his hold relents and Sasuke stands dumbfounded. Hinata pushes him away harshly, beating his chest repeatedly and Sasuke only stands there, letting himself take the brunt.

The tears flow and in a full minute, Hinata sobs as each cacophony of her agony escalates into hits. Sasuke puts his hands on her quaking shoulders and while Hinata does stop her abuse, she continues to cry.

He does not want to tell her it's okay.

It's not.

It fucking is not.

"The Games never end, Sasuke-kun." She whispers in between pitiful sobs. Sasuke draws her closer and finally, she buries her pained face on his chest. Her voice is muffled when she continues. "The Games never end and I don't want to kill you. I don't want to kill you. I don't want to lose you. And victors lose everything."

Softly… softly… softly…

The burnt husk of the Uchiha household. Itachi's boat missing in the treacherous Nakano river, his body never recovered. Hinata rising on the platform. The countdown starting. Naruto kissing Hinata. Hinata kissing back.

Hinata as a victor. Hinata alive.

"No they don't. You are wrong." he says bravely and he wraps his arms around her, afraid to let go. He puts his lips on the shell of her ear, draws her closer. He never felt so complete in his entire life. Oh, Hinata. Because in the end, she is still here with him and that never is a mistake as far as he knows. "I still have you. And I am here. I will stay, I promise."

_I never go back on my word._

He regrets nothing.

And perhaps as the birds chirp for the culmination of the new chapter of their lives with Hinata embracing him back, that is enough for now.

…

.

**(End of Part One)**

**.**

**This chapter concludes the first of the trilogy and thus now, we can begin the slightly more complicated Catching Fire AU. More characters would be introduced into place as you can see on the sneak peeks. The Quarter Quell would take place. The Shinobi Alliance would form. This time, I would focus on developing SasuHina's now fragile relationship and at the same time, throwing in Naruto ever omnipresence. I have always wanted to do a pseudo-love triangle, where Sasuke will find a potential rival EVERYWHERE, only to find out that his real rival is their own society that prevents them from being happy. **

**I decided to make an OMAKE as the next chapter and I will describe a number of character's point of view about certain points in the plot, There's a few of them that I admittedly want to write about. And we have to introduce some of our villains too. **

**There are no words to measure how grateful I am that people still read this. Considering that this is pretty much a crossover with a mainstream franchise and that using it might be a little bit controversial. You know who you are pips. And such is what I really like about SasuHina fandom. We are patient and we see between the lines. We see a lot of possibilities and we are not restricted by the rules of canon. In a way, the SasuHina fandom has satisfied the inner artist in me by letting me continue this fic with such massive support and encouragement. Now, I am not afraid to step out of the line as long as I can write about my favourite couple. Thank you so much and I hope you will still be there as I write about Mockingjay. You have been absolutely unbelievable guys. Seriously. **

**In any case, I also want to thank some of the nice NaruHina pips who passed by. And even the flamer who only inspired more encouraging comments from my shipmates. Remember, this ship would always sail and no storm would bring us down. I would always believe that at another time and place as Naruto in this story would likely say, they would have had a chance.**

**Once again, thank you. And stay tuned for more. **

**Review?**

**-holmesfreak1412**


	11. OMAKE: The Perceptions

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**.**

**.**

**OMAKE**

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**.**

**The Perceptions**

**..**

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**.**

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**The Villagers**

It is not the first time that a twelve-year old has been reaped. True, Hyuuga Hanabi's name was only there once, piled with numerous other names from children who dreaded to be called up the stage. But probability is never, ever a hundred percent guarantee just like not all younger tributes like her were a hopeless case. Uchiha Sasuke had once won after all and he had been twelve at the time. In all likelihood, Konoha knows well not to count out anyone from the Games nor was it right to take things for granted. Eighteen year old Hyuuga Neji had had all the advantage in the previous year but Death like a traitor, succeeded on claiming him.

Life and likewise, death is so unpredictable.

But such fixed, hypocritical views are challenged as Konoha's sweetheart Hyuuga Hinata takes the stage. _I volunteer!_, she screamed at first in sheer panic, her eyes darting in fear but the resolve is there nonetheless. _I volunteer, _she said more firmly this time, manning up. Her eyes held the conviction, someone who was ready to die. And for the first time in decades, the villagers realized what they have been doing all along. The fear in her eyes flashed for a single moment but it was not fear for herself.

For in every child that steps up before them as a tribute, only a lucky few survives.

And they were not even that lucky.

"Hanabi is only twelve." Hinata would say later in the interviews when asked why she chose to go. _I heard Hanabi is well-trained. She would have won anyway, hm? _"I think it's every sister's responsibility to protect the young. I'm an adult and I must protect Hanabi. And there never is a guarantee that she would have won. I refuse to take that slim chance."

It is every adult's responsibility to protect their children.

But in almost a century, they let these children (_and themselves, THEMSELVES) _take the stand, board the train, face the enemies, be devoured by mutts and be killed by their fellow tributes. For the longest time, they thrived in misguided glory, asking themselves what went wrong when they lost that year. What was missing when their tributes almost made it but did not anyway? What are they doing wrong that year? When the reality is that, they were never even supposed to be there in the first place.

For in every tribute that they sent, they never realize what it is for the word itself. A sacrifice. A momentary reprieve from the fear that the oppressive Capitol inspires. Victor or not, they will always lose something. This year's victor or not, they will always be the slave who sent their children to battle just for their own selfish sustenance.

What have they been doing that was wrong?

What have they been doing all this time?

This particular Games would be different. They could feel it. Naruto and Hinata holding hands during the parade promised that.

The notorious pariah grinned. Hinata smiled.

Neither was this the first time for a Seam kid to be paired up with the more Illustrious representative from the merchant's square… Two souls that are so different in upbringing but ending up in the same Battle Royale where they have to kill each other in the end. And one way or another, there is a sacrifice.

And as Naruto tells Hinata to make sure that his own sacrifice is worth it, Konoha comes to its senses.

But the Seam does its uproar first…

Like they always do

..

**The Mentor**

Yuuhi Kurenai won her Games by pretending that she would not. Scoring five when she might have scored ten so easily. Killing only three when she would have killed everyone. For Kurenai believes that there is no point in being excessive and they would all die anyway. It is just a matter on who survives the longest and Kurenai who suffered being sold by her Master to peacekeepers during cold nights, has always been a survivor.

She definitely knows how to identify another one.

Skill only really matters in the end and for as long as you can live through the Games, the end justifies the means. Naruto holds Hinata's hands up in the air, gets close to her and suddenly, they are branded as the star-crossed lovers of the year. So sad. So tragic. The main attraction of these Games. Deception always plays a part on survival. Neji died because he decided to be too honest.

Sometimes, you even have to lie to yourself that everything is fine. Fake it to make it, her father used to tell her.

"What is your game Naruto?" she asked one night as Naruto struggled to wash the paint off his whiskered face, his features contorted into a jolly grimace. The boy hardly looked like a schemer and from what Kurenai knew of him, he was not the brightest of the bunch which was exactly the reason why she chose him.

And Hinata was not the most skilled graduate in the Academy which was why Sasuke chose her. Or so he would like the world to believe.

They were not very lucky this year.

Or that was what she initially thought.

Naruto's face was carefully dubious as he regarded her and Kurenai, who has always been a good liar could easily realize when she was being lied to. "What game?"

She decided not to pursue the subject, shrugging and sighing about the fact that nobody ever held hands in the tribute parade before. The blonde boy laughed that off in genuine mirth, saying something like why not? They are partners.

She wished that she thought like that with Asuma.

"Even if you have to kill Hinata?" was the obvious question at the time. Kurenai raised her eyebrows towards the male tribute, somewhat doubting his innocence. He was from the Seams, for Heaven's sake. And Seam kids, as she had been before saw everything.

This time, he actually looked confused. "I could never kill Hinata." was what he said. The truth in his words had been apparent as daylight, his surprise of the statement even more so. Kurenai chose to believe that Naruto was just a naive boy who once thought as she did that everything would be fine. And he would end up mourning Hinata anyway.

_That boy. He is a survivor._

But there never is a Happy End.

Naruto impales himself with a knife, dies.

Dead end.

But unlike most people, he did keep his words.

And maybe he was right. There is no point of surviving in a world that you don't want to live in.

.

**The Capitol**

The train doors retract in the midst of the sound of gaseous hiss, drowned later by cheering as the newest pair of Konoha tributes stepped out. A rainbow of colours moved in sync while a thousand pair of arms waved in welcome of the newest contestants, the third one to have come since the fearsome duo from Kiri introduced themselves an hour ago. Konoha always produced the most beautiful tributes and made the most alluring of mentors. They always were worth the money.

They all watched the Reaping: a three-hour episode that detailed the elaborate festival each district conducted in excitement for the upcoming Hunger Games. But the true eye-catcher was when the girl from Konoha volunteered in place for her younger sister and when she stared in despair at the boy who came out some minutes later and stood with her on the stage.

In person, Hyuuga Hinata looks like the awkward teenager in absolute surprise and awe of the Capitol's exquisite glamour. Wide-eyed and apprehensive, she waved hesitantly in slow, low movements. They remembered that Kurenai had been like that in the prelims, a shy one who kicked everybody's asses later and look where she was now.

Victors are supposed to be beautiful.

And the moment that Hinata bravely stepped up is absolutely beautiful. They did not see that coming and they like that. The Capitol always liked surprises, those who defied predilections. They liked how Hinata took up Hanabi's place because Hinata made a better love team with the equally beautiful Naruto than the little girl ever could.

That was all they cared about.

In these Games, there would be more surprises to come.

But the key on being hoodwinked is for them not to see it coming.

.

**The Lover**

"But isn't she with Sasuke?"

The ruse would not work, Sakura thought for the umpteenth time as she tried to meticulously carve a flower on the wood, most of which would be sent later in trucks to the Capitol's furniture stores. The deadline for the order was today. Four hundred oak-panelled dining sets using the floral pattern that they used in last year's production and became so popular in even the most recognized celebrity's household had it. But the laborers eyes were fixed on the screens. Naruto and Hinata lie beside each other in the caves, wrapped in each other's arms.

_But isn't she with Sasuke?_

The ruse would not work. It would just not. The Capitol has already interviewed Ino, the town's gossip and taking probably forty minutes of what should be just a routine Q&amp;A, the flower shop owner gave details on when, where, how she saw it. How she can see it. "And isn't it obvious? Sasuke wants her to live so badly, he appeared in more talk shows than he usually goes to every year! Look, don't you see?" Ino seemed to think that Sasuke and Hinata's relationship should be publicized just because, in her gushing words, it's the most epic thing ever.. "The Capitol should rethink their ships. Naruto and Hinata… just do not make sense!"

Ino's blue, knowing eyes were fixed on Sakura when she ranted to her about the interview that day, about the flamingo-look-a-like reporter who must have had a bad hair day and how uncomfortable she made him with her information. "Amazing how something like that would shake foundations, no?" she asked and Sakura chose to laugh it off. But Ino was serious. "I don't really like how Naruto is doing that. I mean, the two of you had been on National Television shagging and here he was, flirting with the town's sweetheart? She's Sasuke's. They should have just told the truth."

And Naruto is Sakura's.

Sakura does not know where else she got that idea. The sex with Naruto had been a gift...

_Goddamit, idiot. I love you, you know._

_Hehe. I've always known that, Sakura-chan. _

_But isn't Sasuke with Hinata?_

But the thing is, it makes sense. Naruto has always liked Hinata, always talked about how nice she is, that he likes people like her, that she probably is the most beautiful girl in the village. And though Naruto has repeatedly confessed to Sakura and even made love to her, she knows that if only Naruto had a chance—and boy, was he given one—it would not take long for him to fall for the girl who he thought was perfect beyond comprehension. Hinata seemed to understand Naruto more than anyone else ever had. It makes sense why the world called them star-crossed lovers. And why she was the bitter rival.

In that short time that she spent running around to avoid the persistent reporters, Naruto had somehow fallen for Hinata.

_But isn't Sasuke with Hinata?_

And Sakura knows that anyone can fall for Naruto.

_But isn't Sasuke with Hinata?_

Ino's interview was inexplicably never aired.

To this day, Sakura wonders whether that would have made any difference.

.

**The Gamemaker**

This Games was supposed to be different. Naruto and Hinata were both supposed to survive. The tragic story of the star-crossed lovers, saved in the last minute by the Capitol to prove that the Capitol can bend the rules to defy a predetermined fate. But Naruto perished and the citizens who cheered them on wails. Konoha revolts, the supply of chopped woods getting lesser and lesser. Kiri sent in crates of fish infected by last month's red tide, a statement of dissatisfaction from the once loyal district.

In hindsight, Kakuzu thinks that the final test has been rather unnecessary.

He thought he had more than enough time to be the real hero of this Games, save the two from the inevitable double suicide and be a rich man for the rest of his days.

Naruto and Hinata were supposed to be this year's victors. The viewers want that and they want to make the viewers happy, content. They pay the taxes. They keep the economy running. In every Hunger Games, the goal is to keep them believing that nothing is wrong with putting twenty-four children in an arena. And for seventy-three years, that was so.

Until Uzumaki Naruto raised his middle finger up in the air.

_Fuck the Capitol._

And in grief, the rich citizens who pay his bill starts to wonder whether what they are doing is right.

"Why did you do it?" the President asks but he does not let him answer the question.

The door closes with finality and Kakuzu watches the president's sinister aura disappear with his future.

.

**The President**

Uchiha Sasuke.

He is a threat.

He knows too many secrets.

He has been paid too much than what he really is worth.

He is too popular.

For years, Tobi has tried to find a way to dispose of him, the aggravating scum who asked questions. He only slept with the most important people. And important people know things. Important people can make things possible.

Like make that unremarkable, fearful girl be this year's victor.

And let the dangerous loud-mouthed boy live long enough to say what he wants.

Last year had been a close shave. Neji was killed before the viewers heard anything. But then Sasuke had not been as tenacious as he was when Hinata's life was at stake.

But this time, they weren't so lucky.

Sasuke had invested too much effort in this one. Too much. He even managed to change the rules at one point, a mistake in itself.

He has to be… eliminated.

How?

The people love him.

Too much.

But he loves only one.

Staring at Hyuuga Hinata's victory portrait—the girl is not that unremarkable after all, a plan begins to form in the President's mind.

They would have the real star-crossed lovers in next year's Games.

And he would not make the same mistake twice.

.

**The Rebels**

Gaara sighs. Shikamaru shrugs. Zabuza shakes his head.

Kiba stands before them, gritting his teeth. Clutched in his hand is Naruto's last letter to his friends, a Capitol Stationery made vagrant by the blonde boy's incomprehensible scrawl. Naruto was never the most educated of people. This chicken-scratch composition is nothing close to a historical artifact. But it gave him the direction's to District Thirteen in a language that only anyone who hails from the Seams would recognize, the Konohan dialect long forgotten by the richer folks.

And it is to Kiba's eternal surprise to find two victors at the end of his short journey.

Even Akamaru is rendered tight-lipped.

Shikamaru, who was presumed dead back home blows a languid trail of smoke. He removes his pipe from his mouth, sighing out once more. "So he wants us to protect the girl, eh." He drones, an indulged expression painted on his face. "I wonder how he had guessed that we will anyway. Hinata's existence is vital to the revised plan."

Who else in Konoha is status "presumed dead"?

Shikamaru supposedly had died in a logging accident. The running gag is that he is too lazy to save himself.

"What plan?" Kiba voices, beyond astounded. There is somehow a big conspiracy here. And Naruto was part og it. He risks a glance towards the two seated victors, both of whom won their Games in their own bloody way. Naruto actually knew these people. Naruto actually knew there was such a thing as District Thirteen. Naruto was actually part of this… project.

What do they need Hinata for?

"We call ourselves Shinobi. Those who endure. But we have endured enough." Gaara speaks for the first time and the authority in his tone surprises Kiba. Wide-eyed, he watches as the red-haired victor extends an arm towards him, his face a blank mask. "Care to join the army?"

The next day, news broke across the Seam that Inuzuka Kiba and his beloved pet, Akamaru met their untimely deaths on a cliff outside the fence, driven to death in drunken stupor after his best friend's tragedy.

No one asked questions.

(TBC)

And ta-da, more hints on how Catching Fire AU is going to be. One reader has actually guessed one predetermined twist in the story. You know who you are and you also know what I mean. Seriously. :D

From now on, we would see more of SasuHina action. I also would be exploring several other Hinata couples over the course of the next chapters. Gaara would certainly be a top rival later, especially since as one reader asked, I certainly would be writing about the Victory Tour. Keke. I really am in love on how I don'y even have to exert much thinking capacity in this fic. And am so glad that you peeps enjoy it as much as I do.

Do review if you have the time and urge. Next part would come soon. Woohoo. To those who reviewed, I am expressing my gratitude through not giving up in this fanfic. Thank you so much.


	12. The Victor

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**Part Two**

**_Burning Them Slowly_**

.

_._

_"__On the twenty-fifth anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that their children were dying because of their choice to initiate violence, every district was made to hold an election and vote on the tributes who would represent it_

_"__On the fiftieth anniversary, as_ _a reminder that two rebels died for each Capitol citizen, every district was required to send twice as many tributes._

_"__On the seventy-fifth anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that even the strongest among them cannot overcome the power of the Capitol, the male and female tributes will be reaped from their existing pool of victors."_

**_-The Quarter Quell_**

_…_

_._

_Chapter Twelve_

_._

_._

_Hinata_

_._

_._

**The Victor**

**001 Victor's Village**

_"__When the victor dies, everyone sharing the house with them must leave and move back to their old house."_

**-The Victor's Village**

_"__Well, they usually say that blood is needed in order to fortify a structure. I killed to get that place. It's only expected that it's the only one left standing after the bombing."_

**-Yuuhi Kurenai**

When victory in the Hunger Games inevitably came with a price, emerging as that quest's sole survivor also comes with a substantial prize. Such is usually the last thing every victor would care about though. Most of the time, they were just grateful to survive.

Growing up, Hinata was far from being a child of destitution. Although by no means pampered, Hiashi being a mayor assured that they had no need to file for tessarae during the Reapings, as most children especially those that hail from the Seams do. In her own reaping, Hinata's name has only been there in that big ball six times and Hanabi's once—an irony that Hinata would never appreciate. She would learn later that Naruto's had been there one hundred ten times. And probably a dozen other people shared the same numbers. It had been a matter of probability for him, a matter of cruel chances that would fall over if Lady Luck chose to be unforgiving and she was. That year, even Hanabi was not spared.

The mansion as they opened house for the first time was aglow with bright lights and decorative lanterns, a colourful banner suspended high above the patio welcoming the most recent victor's family. Around the now seventh estate in the famed Victor's Village are the now ever present Capitol cameras, flashing almost every second and their voices of congratulations a buzz of nonstop activity. They keep a respectful distance though but Hinata could never delude herself enough to forget that they are there.

This is a familiar sight. Four years ago, Uchiha Sasuke stepped in what would be his home for the first time, now the sixth house from the gate of the small village, merely a wall apart from what would be Hinata's. Altogether, their new home made the mayor's estate look like a servant's hut—a place where she can either bury her memories in the vast difference or mourn it in its stark reminders.

She feels Kurenai's hand squeeze her shoulder and by then, the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games victor realizes that in that moment, her hesitation is apparent as the daylight that surfaced that moment the third to the last tribute died. Even in the exuberant aura of the cameras. Even in the gullible perception of the Capitol. And mostly in the sharp eyes of those who know that she cries to her sleep every night. Hinata seemed frozen in her spot, lost in her treacherous thoughts. "It's all yours now." she hears the woman say, her voice coaxing. Gently, Hinata feels the woman guide her towards the main door. The entourage of clansmen behind her would not be able to proceed without their victor leading the way after all.

It is Hanabi who gasps audibly as Hinata turns the knob with noticeably trembling hands. But in the elegance of what is revealed, her apprehension is mostly ignored. There is not even a creak when the huge double doors parted. And even her several cousins who she always known to be men of stoicism could not hide their awe as the exquisite interior is laid out in full sight. More flashes blink continuously. Mansion number seven is the biggest out of all properties in the village. _I did not know you would be this popular. _And suddenly the air feels heavier.

That same day, their things are moved. Not that they have to carry much besides personal effects as the Capitol has taken the liberty to furnish them of virtually _everything_, even those that they have not learned yet how to use. Hanabi has squealed when the shower spurted water as she was just looking for a basin. But she came out looking refreshed and changed, saying she never felt cleaner in her entire life. Hiashi had fallen in love with one of the swivel, velvet chairs and that secretaire in the study. Neji would have been fascinated by the library. Naruto would have lain all day in that heavenly bed…

What little the Hyuuga family of three had brought with them though seems to be more of a newsworthy interest to the Capitol than the genius of interior designing. What did Hinata think as special enough bring in her new life? And before she knew it, her personal life became an open book to be perused by the media. Kurenai said it was normal and she should get used to it because as long as she would in the camera's viewfinder, it would always be so.

The reporters regarded the teddy bear with the red scarf with excitement and somewhat, carefully-phrased heart-wrenching grief. "This is the red scarf that you fixed for Naruto." One had said. And contrary to the more tragic note that the writers made the broadcasters say on air, Hinata just never had the courage to give it back to him, even after he saved her from those who have humiliated her. And now, they were right: she does not even have a chance.

Hanabi brought with her the Mockingjay pin and for the first time since the reaping, the memories of the Seventy-Third Hunger Games are once again in National TV. Neji's portrait is also prominently displayed in the sitting room, the eighteen-year old male smiling thinly in the camera. It was far from the high definition photograph that the Capitol would use everytime he would be mentioned. In a few days after that was taken, Neji would be a tribute. It was the only other thing that the Hyuuga have left of him as even his corpse had been inhumanly violated.

The reporters would soon discover that Hinata requested this instead of erecting her own shrine above the fireplace, as most victors in most villages do (or are required to). When asked, Kurenai just suggested making the truth sound more dramatic and sell it. "That is always better than lying." She said for the woman knows that better than anyone.

Hinata wonders whether Sasuke had gone to this excruciating debriefing as well.

"Neji would always be more of the victor to me. He is my inspiration, my niisan. And he would forever be so in my heart." And the people of the Capitol were given a reason to grieve and lament about unnecessary death once more.

"They would ask you why you don't have Naruto's picture at home." Kurenai warned, one night during their first dinner in the house when the Capitol respected their privacy enough to leave them to eat in peace. Sasuke poked his food all night, not commenting on anything. Hinata wonders why he even bothered coming. "Just make sure you look sad."

There isn't even any effort on Hinata's part.

Hiashi brought with him a grained photograph of their mother that he still managed to save in the forest fire when Hinata and Hanabi were young ten years ago. The image is faded, a far cry from how it was before. But Hinata could barely remember what the woman her father had loved looked like before she was taken by the epidemic and it was the only thing the three of them have. "And we now know where our favourite victor's beauty came from." Deidara says later in the nightly showbiz segment, a digitally enhanced version of the photo now displayed for everyone to see.

Blue hair. White eyes. Heart-shaped face. The late Hyuuga Matriarch had been a beautiful woman. The funny thing was that Hinata was never called one until she was put into a TV show where she had to kill children to win and watch her lover die…

-Lover?-

… where now the standard of beauty seemed about her enduring hours with the stylists bickering and fighting over which colour the next paint should be, only for her to come out as someone she can barely recognize. If this how beauty works, then she thinks that those people have no right to call her mother beautiful. And they have no basis on comparing Hinata to her at all.

From her room that same night—the largest in the manor- she could see Sasuke's, merely a child's leap away from the banister. He is there in the balcony across her own as she comes out to close the curtains, dressed in her old nightgown, one of the things she chose to bring with her. "I was waiting." He says, his face once again the grim mask of aloofness that she is accustomed too. It has been a while since she saw him out of his extravagant Capitol attire and in his nondescript dark colours of mourning. Gone is the charming grin that the cameras did not forget to capture during her own victory party. Quite honestly, Hinata prefers him like this.

"Sasuke-kun."

_Long time no see._

For this is Sasuke, not the victor, not the ladies' man, not the one who smiled for the cameras. This is Sasuke who she owed her life to, who she made love with and whose tears fell openly when she admitted that she might not learn to love anyone as she had loved Naruto.

_So what we did does not mean anything to you?_

"This is my room." He just says, avoiding her eyes. Hinata does not speak, does not look at him. She hears heavy footfall step away. With a heavy sigh, he comes back inside his quarters. She does not know what he means by what he said. And he is already gone to elaborate further. The wind whistles in her ear, as if whispering something that she prefers not to hear.

Which is good. Hinata still does not know what to say, what to tell him, how to say that she does not deserve him, that Naruto does not too. Without provoking his anger.

The next morning, she finds out from the groundskeeper that it was never Sasuke's room. Until yesterday, as he feverishly moved his things, more driven to physical exertion than usual.

The nightmares visit the next night and before she can rouse the entire household, Sasuke is there, telling her that everything is okay. And in his arms, she sobs once more as she realizes what he meant back then. "I told you…" he admonishes and before she knows it, he is rocking back and forth, to and fro. And never has she felt so complete, so alive in his arms.

_No matter what, I will always be here._

_…__._

**002 Loss**

_"__In the end, the only person I truly want to comfort me is Haymitch, because he loves Peeta too."_

**-Katniss Everdeen**

_"__So? Best friends then…?"_

**-Haruno Sakura to Hyuuga Hinata**

A lot of things have changed while she was gone. For one thing, some genius came up with the idea that she and Sasuke were cousins. Dark hair, fair skin and same strong, aristocratic features. It makes sense. The Uchiha and Hyuga maintained a good relationship before the former died out and the last of Sasuke's own family had perished. But for the life of her, Hinata could not figure out why that was necessary in the first place.

"Because he is too handsome, too popular and too desirable to be just your best friend." Ino remarked, as she handed her the batch of flowers her father had paid for. In her absence, it had been too much for her to expect that her own flower garden would be minded as meticulously as she would have. What she came home to had been an area of untrimmed weeds taking all the colours that should have grown. A mutt devouring what would have been a beautiful life away.

The young blonde-haired florist usually have her own errand boys to make the deliveries themselves but Hinata sensed that like most people, Konoha's gossip was just curious about how the suddenly more reclusive victor is faring. As if being in the headlines every night is not interesting enough. "Don't worry. Most people in Konoha think the Uchiha came from the Hyuuga anyway."

Hinata does not know what she means by that. It seems like everyone around her is speaking in riddles and conundrums nowadays, the whole world all conspiring against her, huddled together as they shared secrets she is not meant to hear.

She invites Ino in and as the woman places herself comfortably on the new velvet loveseats, Hinata could feel the woman's eyes trained on her even as she whistled and crooned about how truly rewarding the life of a victor is. The words, she notices has a profound note of bitter sarcasm, her sharp blue eyes holding a slight tone of accusation. Sasuke told her once before the Games that he feels that way most of the time. Survivor's guilt, something that does not make her look forward to the Victory Tour, where she would have to stand proud among people who hates her, smile at parents whose children she killed by simply surviving. But Ino's regard is too heavy, too real to be just a figment of her imagination.

She remembered then that Yamanaka Ino is Haruno Sakura's bestfriend.

Ino assures her with a quick grin as she seemed to perceive her host's wariness that she appreciates her graciousness though.

But whatever she saw with her eyes would come to the town's ears anyway. No exceptions.

Sakura works as a healer in one of the district's clinics. A gifted one, Hinata heard who is earning her well-deserved reputation from grateful loggers injured from the treacherous forest's secrets. Such is however, the sole extent of what Hinata knows of the young woman. During their days in the cave, Naruto did not so much as utter a word about her, carefully avoiding mention of the pinkhead he chose to spend his last moments in the district with. Which was, in light of their situation totally understandable because it's not Sakura's lips that he had kissed last and if Ino, merely a bystander holds Hinata with such animosity, how much more a scorned woman whose men and honour she inconsiderately stole?

As a passing note Ino did mention that she is lucky she is not the one receiving death threats on National TV.

No wonder Ino seems to hate Hinata that much. For in the end, it is not really Hinata who lost Naruto. It is not Hinata who lives being butchered by reporters each day. And it is not Hinata who is considered the whore in the love story when in reality she is.

But Sakura is vastly different from Hinata. And when once a little girl can stand up for herself, in dire situations she becomes a woman who stands up to anything. In National TV, she grabs the persistent reporter's self-effacing microphone, glares angrily at the screen and says before kicking the camera out of her way.

"So what if I'm the Rosaline in this story?" she asks, teeth baring. The whole world gasps. The Capitol holds their breath. Because this reference is exactly how Haruno Sakura was portrayed and more: Naruto's childish and puerile romance. Nothing more and nothing in comparison to Hinata's Juliet. She pushes them out of the way angrily, feet stomping. Green eyes are a swimming murk of smouldering hate and resentment to the world and Hinata flinches, as if the abhorrence is directed to her. "At least I survive the fucking play."

…

.

.

**003 Whip**

_"__Okay. But next time, it's the firing squad."_

-**Romulus Thread**

"And then from then on, I know, that the Seventy Fourth Games is just the beginning. I have always known but it never sounded so real until now. What do you say so, Hanabi? Is this goodbye?"

-**Hyuuga Hinata**

But in the world where you are not allowed to gather more firewood than was allowed to, no brave words such as Sakura's go unpunished.

The spectacle is not on National Television this time but too many people saw it anyway. Sakura's hands are tied around a post as barely-clothed, she was whipped repeatedly by the Head Peacemaker. Her frame curls in absolute agony, the tears in her eyes falling relentlessly. Whip. Whip. Whip. And the swat of each swipe of the belt reverberates in the silence of the horrified audience. The pain is too much not to cry out. Sakura sobs as once more the whip goes down on her back and the whole village could do nothing but cry with her.

Blindfolded, her knees roll on the gravel floor, her head drooped on her shoulders and her whole frame heaving. Her sleeveless red dress has long since been ripped into shreds as the swat of the whip became one too many. Ugly red lines had been drawn by the abuse on her once immaculate skin. The whipping is even more of a familiar sight than a victory feast but it never gets easier, never becomes something you should be used to.

Her knees buckled and her own limbs betraying her in her fear, Ino could do nothing but watch her bestfriend, chained and gagged in the middle of the main plaza be beaten up. The devilish composure could not hide the sadistic grin on the Head Peacekeeper's face who recited Sakura's various "infractions" in that loud booming voice of his that for once did not sound inebriated. And once again he raises his hand, raises his whip and a voice cuts in…

"Stop!"

_Stop!_

The feeling of déjà vu seizes everyone in the square. This happened once before, in the exact same plaza when an older sister decided that there is no way she would let her younger sister take the horrors of killing people in order to be glorified.

A flash of white dashes towards the center of the court and in a flash of a second, the whole village sees Hinata, arms spread wide and shielding Sakura from what might be a blow that would kill her. "Stop!" the victor implores once more, wide-eyed in her forced attempt of authority. But her knees are trembling in fear too and the Peacekeeper who had only been momentarily deterred only laughed.

"You have no right to do this." She utters and the first full sentence coming from her saviour's mouth makes Sakura weakly raise her head for a moment. The sun's brilliant yellow glints overhead. The blue of the sky is blinding her barely holding consciousness. There were orange spots in her eyes. She can smell the metallic scent of her own blood. But the colour combination makes her wonder momentarily whether Naruto has come back to the living and once again, came to her aid.

_You idiot, _she wants to say. _I love you. _She wants to add. But the voice that follows the words shatters her illusions. Hyuuga Hinata stands squarely in front of her, her arms held up and her posture alert. And suddenly, Sakura can see why this once mouse of a girl became Naruto's Juliet. She could almost feel the girl's body shake in terror. The Peacekeeper has drawn out a gun and is pointing it now at the victor. But Hinata pretends to be unperturbed.

Just like Naruto, in his grin and fierce determination always did.

"Hinata-san…" she mutters and Sakura is surprised how the drawl of her name in her lips would require so much effort. Is this death already? Is this how Naruto felt when he declared his last words as his heart struggled to keep beating for the girl he has decided he loved?

"Just hang in there, Sakura-san." The girl glances at her sideways, giving her a small smile. The Peacekeeper keeps the muzzle of his gun levelled on the girl's head but Hinata chooses to ignore it. She fixes her stare on the barrel and for a moment she thinks that there is something comforting about that endless black hole in the man's deadly weapon. Maybe she has always wanted this. Maybe she has always wanted to die. "Just hang in there."

And it is ridiculous. Because in her words, Sakura could swear that she hears Naruto's voice.

And she realizes in an instant the reason why Naruto decided to die.

"Take me instead." Sakura hears those words and her head snaps up. And so she witnesses Hyuuga Hinata kneel in submission, waiting for her own execution. Her eyes closed, her shoulders sag. And she hears the resolve that everyone heard when in the same place a few months ago, Hyuuga Hinata volunteered in place of her sister. The willingness to die to protect someone important. The best that they can be in this selfish world. "Just kill me instead."

…

.

.

**004 Saviour**

_"__You should imagine thousands upon thousands of your people dead. This town of yours reduced to ashes. Imagine it gone. A radioactive buried under dirt as if it had never existed like District 13. But they were games. Would you like to be in a real war?"_

**-President Snow**

_"__Promise me. Just promise me! That if Hinata gets called that you would not let that happen! Don't make Hinata go there for the second time. I will go. I will volunteer. I will protect you if I have to. But please, Kurenai, make sure she would not have to go… Make sure that she lives goddamit!"_

**-Uchiha Sasuke**

This time, a sight of black flashes before hundreds of Konohan's riveted eyes. And the next thing the whole village know, Uchiha Sasuke stands up over the pummelled Peacekeeper and holds the gun over the man's head, his dark eyes flaring in anger and his teeth gritting in feral, murderous intent.

Another second and his finger squeeze on the trigger and the boom of a gunshot resonates throughout the silenced main district. The bullet embeds itself inches away from the man's head, the casing bouncing off the cemented floor as the Peacekeeper stares stunned at the close shave, risks a glance up at the man who just turned the tables over and visibly flinches at the sight.

His executioner.

Uchiha Sasuke kicked his pathetic face.

"Do you have any idea who you just pointed your gun at?" the victor snaps, launching a series of kicks on the injured law enforcer, not holding back. "Do you have any idea what I would do to you if you so much as lay a hand on her? If you so much as touch her? Do you know what I will do to you?"

This time, he leans down and uses his fist. And no answers are needed to clarify the rhetoric. The strength is barely suppressed and full of pent up force. The Peacekeeper would have found that he lost all of his front teeth that day. And Sasuke did not stop with just one.

Seeing their once invincible leader being beaten up in front of their own citizens, there is a slight wave of reluctance as the rest of the other Peacekeepers respond with their stun baton. Kurenai appears before they get any closer, holding up her hand and states with the real authority that Hinata attempted before that they would not want to do that unless they want to die.

"This girl here…" she points at Hinata, red eyes calm and composed but in her words, you can hear her disapproval, the carefully veiled threat. This is a victor in action, Hinata thinks. Kurenai, the woman who killed and could still do so without batting an eyelid. "This girl here… This girl here is the Capitol's sweetheart. She is a victor. And so are we. You would not want to kill the person that those who pay your paycheck loves right?"

"Bullshit!" the leader spat almost unintelligibly, struggling to even raise himself off the pavement. With disgust, one could note that in those few words and his overbearing pride, he has been forced to swallow his front teeth. "Victor or not, you are still—"

Sasuke shoots him right at the centre of his forehead.

He did not so much as hesitate.

Kurenai glares at him, shaking her head.

But she does not say anything to admonish him.

Sasuke directs his attention to the other enforcers, eyes darker than ever and this time, the authority of those who survived, no, _won—for there is a difference_, the Hunger Games is even more apparent. "Do you want to be like him?" he asks. And the group of stun gun wielding men who were mostly just young adults dispatched in here because they could be nothing else, falters. "Do you want to end up like him?"

The threat is by no means an empty one.

In a minute, Sasuke would come to regret what he did. Now, the government would focus their attention even more to Konoha, as if the uprising incited in the Seams upon Naruto's death is not enough. The President would now have his eye on Hinata. And those Rebels he kept hearing rumours about… But in that instant, he just felt satisfied.

Sasuke's eyes met Hinata's.

And both find as they swim each other's accusing gazes that there is no gratitude at all in there. And for the first time, it held.

…

.

.

**005 Seams**

_"__Gale, you know how I feel about you. But I can't think about anyone that way right now. The only thing that I can think about, everyday, every waking moment since the Reaping is how afraid I am. There's no room for anything else. But maybe if we got away from here, if we went somewhere safe, it could be different, I could be different."_

**-Katniss Everdeen**

_"__I think you should all realize the point. Naruto decided that this world is not the best for anyone. Why not we just do our best to create a new and a much better one?"_

**-Gaara**

Hinata never felt like a tourist in her own village until now.

But in reality, she has always been a tourist. Living a sheltered life inside the walls of the Hyuga compound, once naively feeling that the worse that could happen in the merchant's square is for the once-in-a-blue-moon snowfall to come into Konoha once more and render everybody's business into the bankruptcy that would take years to get up from. Hinata remembers one such case four years ago as it rained and it rained and Naruto lay sprawled at their yard and Hinata kneeling by him, handing him a quarter of her family's dinner.

That was the first time Hiashi slapped her. The second time was in the Justice Building. Those two instances, Hinata would never come to regret though.

Not once has she stopped to think what the notorious Seams must be like, even in those days that she thought about Naruto more than she should. The Seams is not something that she has ever imagined from those dystopian books Neji managed to smuggle from his weekly trips to the black market. And for the first time in her life, Hinata felt that in comparison to how she has felt being oppressed by the Capitol's rules all her life, this community of coal miners so far got the worse end of the stick.

It is a dilapidated shack that they come to as Ino insisted on taking Sakura to her home to recuperate and _nowhere else. _"Because I'd be damned if I let you people take her to your fancy homes!" she burst out, tears leaking from her angry, blue eyes. Sakura's head was drooped on her shoulders and Ino desperately draped her arms to her almost immobile friend. "Or anywhere near there. She belongs to the Seams. And that is where she is going."

"Shut up, Pig…" Sakura's weak mutter had startled the four as they crowd around the wounded young woman. Her green eyes fluttered open, the curve of her bruised mouth forcing an even weaker smile. Ino sobbed even more at the deplorable sight. "Just shut it, Ino."

And when Sakura raised her hand to wrap it around Hinata's whose own tears fell openly, everyone watched in absolute surprise. "Thank you." Sakura whispered. And she began to weep too, weeping for something that they realized only the two of them would understand. Hinata's arms were wrapped tightly around the young woman, her face buried on her bloodied pink hair. She muttered an agonized apology. And Sakura welcomed her touch. "Thank you." She murmured over and over.

It had been eight hours since then and Sakura lay on her back on her bed, her lower bare body draped with the only clean blanket that Ino managed to find from the vagrant and shabby quarters. Hinata runs skilled fingers over the lacerations on her back, coating each injury ointment for the second time in many hours. In the arena, Naruto's leg wound had been deeper, more of a threat. Sakura would have scars all over but she would live, just like Hinata did.

The Hyuuga is not so sure whether that is a good thing.

Sasuke comes over to pick her up that night, sitting with chin propped on his folded leg by the patio. In her room, Sakura is still unconscious but she has already passed the stage of delirium to finally reach a stable condition. Hinata promises that she would come back tomorrow and for the first time since she came home after the Games, Ino smiles as though they were friends again. It was not as bright as she was used to whenever she casually dropped by to buy some new seeds. But it was enough for Hinata to know that she is pardoned for now. "Thanks." And then the woman puts her arms around the victor, an apology halfway across her lips before Hinata says that everything is fine.

It is her fault anyway.

On their way back to the victor's village, Sasuke tells her that he will leave for the Capitol first thing in the morning. He has his hands on his pockets, a solemn expression on his face. Hinata asks him why because this time she knows that Sasuke would settle for the truth, now that they are equals and she would find out soon anyway.

Because if victors share one thing besides the nightmares in their sleep, it is dark, dark secrets in what comes after in the real world.

"They need payment for what I did earlier." He says and Hinata does not need to ask further on what that deed was. For obstruction of justice is not something that the Capitol takes lightly, victor or otherwise. They have been lucky this time but of course, it would not be for long. Sasuke's sigh is heavy and the air around his mouth fogs. Favourite or not, what he did is still murder. "I need to pay them with what I can before they decide to take things away."

_I would not let them take what is mine again. _

Those same words he said to her as their lips met for the first time. And it scares Hinata how Sasuke is so desperate, so enamored with her that he decides to even sell himself just to keep her.

Is she even worth it?

The silence that follows is tense, uncomfortable. Hinata could not gather the words to say as she takes the step behind him, watching as his rigid back betrays the apprehension he feels in the reality of what he will face the next day. Sasuke had been forced to do the unforgivable because of her and he has to pay for it with the unthinkable.

He always has to.

Protecting her and shielding her…

In the only way he knows how to.

They stop by the gates of their mansions and as Hinata gingerly lifts the locks, Sasuke pauses, waiting for her to say something, anything.

And she relents. "When will you be back?" She decides for something that she is aware; she wants badly to know at least.

His response is certain, straightforward, no hesitation. "Once they are satisfied."

And for once she could not stop it from falling and she could not stop herself from breaking. Hinata rushes to embrace him and Sasuke is more than glad as he held her violently shaking frame to finally, _finally_ wrap his arms around her.

_I'm sorry. _

And this time as if a lover's goodbye, she lets him kiss her.

…

**(TBC)**

I could never thank you guys enough for being here with me even as I update in excruciatingly long intervals. And probably I would be losing some readers but the important thing for me is the thought that some people actually enjoyed this once upon a time and even took the time to review. Most of you had been consistent like **Mimiz** who is too hard on her/himself. I would always consider that effort of you typing a review up on your phone is enough encouragement. **Akhlys** who once said that the idea is cringeworthy but is still here to read provide wonderful feedback. And **Midnight's Violet Haze** whose fics would always be one of the first things that got me into SasuHina. There's **so many more to mention** but as part of my eternal gratitude, I would keep updating this fic for you. Please forgive me if it takes too long though. I have been awfully busy in the past few weeks and a writer's block does not help at all. At nineteen, I am going in between jobs to support myself. Well, the struggles. Sheesh.

The SasuHina intrigue would start building up in this part. And it would not take long before we see the angst that I have always wanted to write about with these two. If you consider Sasuke's once unrequited love heartbreaking, well, yeah, SasuHina peeps got another thing coming. I am also running out with the quotes I usually write in the beginning. To this day, I have no idea why I bothered to put it in there in the first place. But I would try my best.

There is a reason why I don't answer much of the questions that you put on your reviews. That's because I usually put hints of what will happen on the next chapters. Haha. One reviewer got the Shinobi conspiracy for instance, which is pretty clever. I never denied the fact that this is heavily derived from The Hunger Games. I advertise that, for heaven's sake. Which is why it is easier for me to write this fic than the other ones that I have because I love both fandoms. And it makes me happy that you guys enjoy this as much as I do.

I am not sorry for the long author's note, unfortunately and this is me being truthful. I haven't posted anything here in weeks so I might as well rant about thing including Chapter 701 but that would be too much. But I missed this so much it makes me emotional. Love Wheel will probably be updated soon but until I remember those things I wrote in my notes back then, I am stuck in limbo.

My only wish is to reach 100 reviews. But that may be too much.

Please review if you have the time. Thanks! And see ya!

Next up: The Warning


	13. The Warning

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**2**

**.**

**The Warning**

**.**

**.**

_Sasuke_.

**006 Gift**

**"I just want to spend every possible minute of the rest of my life with you,"**

**-Peeta Mellark**

** "****You have the same eyes as Neji, the eyes of the person who thought he has lost everything. Neji did not. He still has me. And the whole family. But I know you probably really have no one. But you can have me. I would like us to be friends Uchiha-san."**

**-Hyuuga Hinata to Uchiha Sasuke**

When Sasuke made love with Hinata for the second time, it was a much better experience. Her pale eyes a smouldering gaze, glistening with unshed tears as slowly she guided his fingers to slowly peel off her robes. The full moon illuminated the contours of Hinata's now polished skin, emphasized the now brown scar on her face. She pulled him closer and their lips met with the fiery urgency of the last goodbye. And the desire he felt for her surprised him because never before has Sasuke thought of her like this, even after he penetrated her chastity for the first time. Because such lewd, lustful thoughts is what violated him. He never wanted to violate Hinata.

"Are you sure about this?"

He was sure that the first time would be the last time and never did he think of touching her the same way twice, that he would even desire to. For Sasuke, holding her in his arms is enough. To see her try to piece herself back together across their balconies, to stay by her if she fails the first instance. Whatever sinful needs he developed as a Capitol man, he would never dare share with her. For he never aspired of sharing a home, a name, a bed with Hinata—that would have been a will-o-the-wisp that would forever elude him. _You're an Uchiha now._ That time seems like a distant dream now, a grain of sand he would watch dissolving in his very palm, only to find it never was intact in the first place. But once in a while, he thinks, he just cannot stop deluding himself that those few bits of sand left on his hands could be a glimmer of hope and finally become pearls. That someday, somehow, Hinata would be an Uchiha like he somehow thought so and there would be a happy end to their downward spiral.

Verbally, Hinata did not respond. But she led his fingers to her naked breast, splayed it over her beating heart, took his other hand on her lips and kissed it. He feels her tears leak from between the gap of his fingers, feels the growingly erratic thump on the other one. He feels his own trying to escape its cage. And he wonders how that could be when he all but gave the last of it to her. Their lips meet once more. And for now, that is enough. Because Sasuke, of all people understands solace, its cost. And its startling rarity.

He is drowning in her. And as he held her tiny body in his arms, the gravity of what they had done sank in. He felt Hinata shudder violently but he did not let go. And she stayed.

How he wished he could stop time, freeze this moment and engrave this forever in a tableau when he did not have to wake up to the nightmare of his everyday life as a victor.

The first time he met Hinata, she gave him a gift. The gift of her friendship, as he woke up everyday, realizing that he still has someone to live for, to protect. The girl who smiled gratefully at him even as he failed to save her brother. The girl who trusted him to save _her_.

For in Konoha, there may be a lot of children but childhood is as farfetched a fantasy as the Uchiha clan flourishing once more. There might not be a forever for the both of them but a lifetime with Hinata would have been enough.

This time, Hinata did not flinch when he entered her. And it was Sasuke's eyes which bled tears instead.

…

.

**007 Meeting**

**"****The bird, the pin, the song, the berries, the watch, the cracker, the dress that burst into flames. I am the mockingjay. The one that survived despite the Capitol's plans. The symbol of the rebellion."**

**-Katniss Everdeen**

**"****I wish I did not volunteer. I envy you, Hinata. I know you would never regret your decision. You saved your sister. Me: I ended up killing my brother."**

**-Uchiha Sasuke to Hyuuga Hinata**

He was the first victor from Konoha in ten years, the triumphant winner of one of the most historical Games in history. After all, he was given the most expensive sponsor gift, kept lavishly fed all throughout as he proceeded on stalking his prey, his twelve-year old frame half-naked all throughout because he knew it works.

_"__And for the boys: Uchiha Itachi!"_

_"__I volunteer!"_

_"__You idiot!"_

_"__I, Uchiha Sasuke volunteer as tribute."_

He had always wanted to prove to everyone that he was better than Itachi.

Standing before the President now, he felt no better than his perfect, infallible, _dead, _older brother had once been. The one-eyed masked man elegantly steepled his hands under his chin, one eye pensively looking him up and down as he makes gruff grunts of approval. Sasuke is used to being scrutinized, having been sold to more than many fastidious politicians—menand women alike. But there was none of that hunger in their loins on this man that he would have easily manipulated. In the President's eyes, he was nothing more than a toy he could dispense, a tool used now that he could discard. And amidst the presence of the man who made his life and many others like this, Sasuke irrationally felt the dirtiest.

_"__You don't know what you are doing, Sasuke!"_

_"__Of course I do! I am going to show Father that I am better than you! I will come home a victor and bring honor to the Uchiha!"_

But no, Itachi was right. As he had always been. There was no victory when he won the Games. Sasuke brought death and shame to the Uchiha instead.

There had only been that one time that he had been in this office, a spacious luxury of a room that clearly signifies the man's sheer, stupendous authority in the world's fate. The plaque that introduced the otherwise indescript individual is a pretentious gold with plated diamonds that remained unchanged over the years. _The President, _it says, its laconic, rather steeotypical style only emphasizing the power of the man sitting before him. Shapeless dark robes and orange mask, this man has been around for as long as even the most ancient in the Districts could recall. Sasuke remembers the first time he rejected him was the same time he lost everything.

Everyone in Konoha knew it was not a fucking coincidence.

He clenches his fist.

"Sasuke…" the man's deep tone interrupts his treacherous thoughts and for another moment, he is seized by the crippling fear that reminds him that if the world's unity and the natural flow of time itself could not kill this man, Sasuke would never manage to. "Long time no see…"

He could almost imagine the man's feral grin as Sasuke slowly nodded back his respectful greeting, satisfaction gained from watching an animal you tamed yourself. If it was still a custom to bow and kneel, Sasuke would have, knowing that for the moment Hinata would be safe and he would be forgiven. It worked once but then he had nothing but himself to spare at the time.

He has something to lose again.

"I heard what happened back in Konoha." he begins and there is a knot on Sasuke's stomach that tightened even more at the man's direct approach. Gone was the man's pretext of amiability, the persona of a gracious host. But there was that same critical tone that he used when he asked him to pay the sponsor that saved his life, the one that ultimately killed his family.

An eye. A tooth. Those are what you give The President if he gives you so much as a glance. Or if you take away so much as a strand of his short, spiky hair. Sasuke gave more than his body and soul to continue living a life of slavery that he never wanted in the first place.

It costs more than to just die and vanish.

Nothing is for free in the Capitol.

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to train Peacekeepers, Sasuke?" the man questions, drumming his fingers on his wooden desk—courtesy of Konoha's hardwork. Almost immediately, light sizzles into an image behind him and Sasuke is presented of a scene depicting what he remembers from his victory tour as Kirirgakure and from its reputation, its Tribute Academy. "They all come from here, bloodthirsty, angry, very vicious. Do you know that the Peacekeepers who you fear are once children who dreamed to be in the Games? They were not given the chance to shine, that is why they are angry. That is why they do not like victors."

The Peacekeeper's ugly face briefly flashes before his mind, snarling and more than ready to kill Hinata, his teeth coal-black from excessive tobacco. There have been a lot blood in Sasuke's hands, most of which still kept him awake at night but with conviction, he realizes that he does not regret this one—

Wrong.

"And yet you killed one of my favourites." As if confirming that the fleeting thought should be more than that, the President summons a file and a photo of the same man floats before Sasuke. He was younger then, probably taken in the Academy when he once held hopes that like a few luckier ones, he would win the Games and not become the bitter but more likely alternative: to guard a district's electric fences. "Do you even know his name?"

Before he could stop himself, Sasuke finds that he has already responded. And that his jaw is clenched. And that his hand has already closed to a fist. For a moment, he manages to conjure Hinata's frame as he slept in his bed the previous night and he calms down. "I could not care less."

You have to appear indignant, Kurenai has advised. You have to appear as if you did the right thing. That the last thing his constituents would want is for Hinata to die.

But Sasuke knows that the President could not care less too.

The President chuckles, pushing himself back on the rest of his hovering swivel chair, his finger still steepled over. "I like that." The man remarks and Sasuke realizes the pitfall he has just dug himself into.

In one swift click on his virtual keyboard, all the holograms vanish and fizzle into oblivion. The room has reverted to its original state before the splendour of computerized reality and in that moment, it was only him and the President. He rises from his seat, the swish of his iconic robe follows him as he stands by once again at the now featureless window and Sasuke realizes that it is no longer him murdering the President's "favourite" anymore—as anyone in the Capitol is indispensible. There is a bigger picture at stake in here and unwittingly, he and Hinata were thrown in the middle of it.

"Uchiha Sasuke." The President begins. "The night is young and you will be here for a long time anyway. Care to listen to a story about how this world came to be?"

He braves all the reservation by responding. "You mean, starting with The Eye of the Moon project?" Sasuke knows of the story. They were forced to listen to a whole movie-length documentary during every Reaping after all when at the earliest age, they learn how they were reduced to mere loggers for several decades and that they could not be more than that unless…

"The Tsukinome System, yes. Where me, Madara has saved the world from the illusions of democracy as I established the government where all dreams come true for those who deserve it. That which serenity is granted for those who are capable. The elite has already been determined. And for peace to be attained, those who are under the men who has become the exact image of God must serve them. Kami supposedly created us under his image but then, she still forbade her sons from wielding the same power as her. And that caused war, this strive for equality. Tsukinome does not strive for that. For in every victor, there is the vanquished. And when man begin to accept superiority, then there is the illusion of peace

"When I say illusion, I know that there is no such thing. Don't you think I am too old to believe in such naiveté? But the people have to believe their government and in turn, we have to keep our façade. Why do we have the Hunger Games? It is to imply that in the end, you could not really trust anyone but the Capitol. And even yourself is powerless if you go against it. That only the Capitol can save you. Why am I telling you this? Because I am very much aware that you are no fool Sasuke. No, perhaps, you are too smart. Which is why I like you. Did you ever hear of that rumour that I am an Uchiha too?"

The whispers of distrust come back to him, a cacophony of sounds as he and Itachi passed by Konoha's main square. A heavy feeling of foreboding had seized him back then, how the villagers weighed them down with grudging stares and judgemental regard. And how Itachi had not wanted him to see it.

"It's nothing, Sasuke." His brother had assured him. But even a child so innocent and inexperienced would deduce that such malicious treatment is nowhere near _nothing. _

It was back then that he resolved that he would bring honor to the Uchiha, for Konoha to worship them once again in their greatness, for Konoha to stop blaming them for once for the suffering that they are also subjected to and for his father to look at him with immeasurable pride. _This is my son. _

For Konoha to recognize that he is better than Itachi.

None of that ever happened.

The burnt husk of his childhood home flashes before his eyes, merely reduced to the disgraceful memory of the proven inferior. For once, Konoha did not look at him with disgust as he moved by his mournful self to the victor's village but their pity is not welcome either.

Sasuke does not take the bait. He lets the rhetorical question pass.

But Uchiha Madara is to be undeterred. "That is why I would rather not kill you.

_Seems like you would be useful to me. _

"But you and I both know I can kill everyone else."

Victors are not indispensible either—the strongest in every village and they are but powerless amidst the Capitol's greatness. That fact stays with Sasuke as the doors close and he is dismissed.

….

.

.

**008 Slave**

**"****I had to do that. At least once."**

**-Gale Hawthorne**

**"****You call yourself a child, Sasuke-kun? That is funny. Because let me tell you sssomething, you ceased being one the moment you wielded my blade. You no longer are one the moment you stepped in the Games. You no longer are one the moment you lost everything."**

**-Orochimaru**

_Here we go again… _

And so that same night, he finds himself seated bare and exposed in a penthouse in downtown Capitol, the bed underneath him donned red for the occasion. A crane of his head in every direction and he could clearly see his profile, made perfect by his personal hairstylist, made immaculate by the best of Capitol's cosmetics. But in front of the mirror that covered every corner of the room, never has Sasuke felt dirty. It is a familiar dance and it never gets easier each time.

From the half-empty flask beside the bed, Sasuke drains the whiskey, taking the warm swig in one tense swallow. Dutch Courage, the more archaic literature calls it. And thankfully enough, the burning sensation in his throat eases the trembling of his knees. The man that he will be indulging tonight is a frequent client though, the very man who sent him what is now known in The Hunger Games museum as the Kusanagi blade. "You can pay me in another way." the man had said when Sasuke thanked him in his own Capitol Victory party six months after his Games, as was decorum. The licking of his lips proved to be ominous. And his golden eyes held more in its pools than mischief. Nothing is for free in the Capitol.

Superior and inferior, he remembers the President's words and his fingers drumming on his desk for every emphasis. One gets the prize as the other pays the price.

So for Uchiha Sasuke to live, he had to give up his lifetime of possibilities.

For Uchiha Sasuke to live, he had to give up his life.

For Uchiha Sasuke to live, he had to give up Hina—

The door from the bathroom creaks open (but even that is inaccurate for nothing in the Capitol ever creaks, more like: it slides open silently) and Sasuke wonders how deep his reverie must have been that he did not hear the shower go off. The white lighting from the bath is in stark contrast to the sepia motif made by the candles all around the Mirror Room. Fetish, he remembers the old world calling this tendency and he read that even back then, the innocent-sounding word is a taboo to dinner circles. Sasuke does not want to know what the Capitol in its colloquial lingua, calls it now. They probably have a more obscene version of the word now.

Orochimaru steps out the mist, a dark-haired, unnaturally pale man and whose thin, almost unhealthy-looking body he no longer bothered covering with a robe. They have so far gone past that. Orochimaru had done so many unimaginable things to him in the past couple of years that he had already trained himself not to cringe every time the man made himself bare before him.

He nods in acknowledgment, automatically smirking as what he knows the man would like. He is good in this.

That is, after he managed to delude himself that he could not care less after one drink.

Now pretending to be apathetic (Orochimaru also likes a challenge), Sasuke regards him with unflinching eyes, glad that his limbs have not betrayed him yet and made his mounting apprehension apparent. The grin that Orochimaru gave him is lewd and unsightly. There is no getting used to this. Sasuke wants to throw up.

"My beautiful victor…" the man croons and he tries not to, but the younger winces. He forces himself not to recoil, keeping his reins on hold as Orochimaru touches and straddles him. He had been with countless of men and women before. This should be no different.

But he had been with Hinata just the other night.

He comes twice that night. Mostly, because he has also trained himself to be aroused whenever he needs to be. But alone in his room several hours later, he rips off the sheets, scratches himself, throws glasses all over and there is that moment he wishes that he could just jump off the window and end it all.

Sasuke realizes that there is a reason why everything seems more unbearable now and why in that one crucial moment as Orochimaru lay under him, spent and exhausted, did he entertain the idea that he could easily kill him if he wants to, squeeze the life out of him and get revenge from the person who once saved his life when he was and is better off dead.

But Sasuke does not take the sharp edge of the brittle, broken glass. He does not let a single shard sink in his skin, does not let blood seep out of his body. And as he cleans the room before the Avoxes could tell on him, the young Uchiha also has an epiphany why.

With Hinata, he finally got a taste of heaven.

And even as the once neutral surrounds becomes more of a hell to his everyday, he would give everything up to get more.

…

.

.

**009 Secrets**

**"****You've got to go through it to get to the end of it."**

**-Greasy Sae**

**"****Are you aware, Hinata-san, how lucky you are than most of the other victors here in this room?"**

**-Gaara**

He encounters Gaara on his last day in the Capitol, dressed in the familiar seductive hues that every victor is forced to wear in their stylist's whim. Konoha's green, Naruto's orange and Hinata's lilac is the current trend in their ever-changing society, with numerous movies about tragic love released at an almost daily basis. Sasuke had long since realized that with this hype and collective excitement, even the most "noble" of Capitol citizen would pay an arm and a leg (they could regrow it anytime anyway, thanks to the Zetsu technology. He owes his left arm to that.) to openly boast that they spent the night with the victor of this year's Hunger Games' Juliette.

It scares him.

"It has been five months" Hinata had mentioned to him once as she absently poked on the cake that was served in front of her, her eyes devoid of any emotion. That was only a few days ago. She looked lost then, an empty shell of the once optimistic girl who smiled at even the saddest of moments. But then again, she did say once that it was Naruto's grin that effectively kept her own. "Five months and we still have not conducted a formal funeral for Naruto-kun,"

Read: they have not returned the body yet.

Only the devil knows what they could have done with the corpse. Hyuuga Neji's body has only been shipped three months after the Games and it was with horror that they beheld the eyeless sockets and the violated body that no one bothered to restore.

Even the dead are not spared of the Capitol's perversity.

But most times, they are the luckier ones.

_Did you ever regret killing those children, Sasuke-kun?_

_No. Because I was a child too, younger than most of them. But I wish I was the one who died instead. _

Looking at Gaara feels like staring at the same mirror that he found himself facing at Orochimaru's place, an exact reflection of what he had become. Teal eyes bore into him, sizing him up. Sasuke returns the stare, glaring at the fellow victor with equal, unconcealed animosity.

This man is the one who survived when Neji did not.

Behind the redhead, rhythmic clicks of a pair of stiletto heels follow. Temari emerges from the gloom of the dimly-lit corridor, her eyebrows rising fractionally at the sight of the infamous Uchiha before giving off a devious smirk. "Sasuke." She greets, nodding. Sasuke returns the amiability.

Temari and him go way back, winning consecutive years when she seduced the last tribute and killed him as he ejaculated. When it was Temari's turn to be "popular", Sasuke was the one who gave the brief coaching on how she should act despite being three years younger. When it was Gaara's turn, she took his place. And the cycle goes on.

He fears that he would do the same thing for Hinata.

Or most likely, Gaara would.

He shakes his the thoughts off.

Now that he had someone whose company he could at least endure, Sasuke wonders aloud on why they are here.

Temari looks as though she is confused, regarding Sasuke with cocked eyebrows. Gaara shrugs. The older sister is the one who responds. "That's a surprise Sasuke. I mean, this concerns your tribute. No, your _victor_. In two weeks time, she would be here again for the victory tour and you know the drill about Gaara here passing the crown and perhaps dancing with her. Most surviving victors are here now, you know."

The information throws him off. But that means the victory tour is commencing now!

"It's a surprise to see that you are here too." Gaara observes, for the first time seeming more interested than his usual apathetic self. The man is forever remembered as one of the victors who killed more than expected in his Games, second only to the Demon of the Mist, Zabuza _who killed everyone_. "Did the President request for your presence?"

They all know what that means.

_Did you do something wrong?_

"That is none of your business." He grunts, glancing at his watch. If he manages to coax his escort on having the train depart in an hour, he should be in Konoha before Hinata leaves for Suna, the first destination. Normally, the victory tour is not scheduled until the next two fortnights: seven months after the Games. But the President must be speeding things up. This could only mean…

"You must have done something to piss them off, Sasuke." Temari remarks, realizing the train of thought her brother has paved way for. There is a mischievous glint in her eyes and by no means is Sasuke known for his chivalry. He has killed females in the Games but he already had enough blood on his hands. "Poor Hinata. Now, they want her even more."

He might have sprinted pass by her, ran all the way to his escort's rooms and demanded to have the train be ready for his departure but Gaara's fingers close around his arm, stopping him. He shrugs the hold off, miffed at the sudden gesture from the stoic victor but the determination on the other man's eyes momentarily jerks him into an attentive pause.

"I did tell you once." He only says and for a moment seems to contemplate on something but ends up whirling around, heading to his own quarters but not before muttering further. "I did warn you."

_"There may be loopholes. But there is always a cost, something left behind when someone tries to squeeze through them. You better remember that Sasuke."_

Gaara pauses as he is about to put his proximity card on the door's sensors. And in the man's once cold eyes, he witnesses something odd, but not hostile. He wonders if it must be pity.

"I think we need to talk, Sasuke. When we see each other again."

And Gaara vanishes inside.

…

.

**010 Victory Tour**

**"****I'll be back as soon as possible after I deal with our little fire starters."**

**-President Snow**

**"****Superior and inferior. Victor and the vanquished. That is the difference between you and me. And you are none of the former."**

**-The President**

"Sasuke-kun!"

_When are you going to come back?_

_Once they are satisfied. _

He was wrong.

Dead wrong.

They will never be satisfied.

"I thought it would not be until next month, Uchiha." Hyuuga Hiashi admonishes from behind his daughter who is getting her hair done. Much to Sasuke's surprise, Sakura is there too, smiling slightly at his appearance as if she was not whipped near death a week ago. Hinata gazes at him, wide-eyed and wordlessly asking the same question as her father did.

"They are rushing things up." Is all that he can offer. Meanwhile, three multicoloured people from the Capitol are busying themselves with Hinata and for a full minute, he loses sight of her.

He turns to the fuming Hiashi. "I heard that the President came over."

It is as if the atmosphere in the whole room froze up. From the corner of his eye, Hinata tenses up so visibly that the green-haired hairstylists has cajoled her loudly to just relax—_inhaleexhale—_and the buzz of activity continues once again.

"Yes." Hiashi confirms what Hanabi has excitedly told him at the front door. "He came to talk to Hinata."

It is an honour in itself when the President requests for your presence.

The President does not, _never, _takes the time to _grace _anyone with _his. _

_I think you would be useful to me. _

Superior and inferior. Prize and price. And Sasuke does not even want to wonder why the most powerful man in the whole world decided to personally come and deal with Hinata.

He was there to claim his prize.

…

**(TBC)**

.

100 reviews! I really am glad to see that people are still reading this. A lot of things happened in canon and all. But we have a lot more pressing matters to deal with. SasuHina month is coming and though I just am that silent spazzer in tumblr, I will continue being a passenger of our ship.

I am a very busy person and to be honest, this one is a very big challenge for me to write. I do apologize but as I did promise, I will do my very best to finish my stories. It may take time. I mat lose readers but in the end what matters is that i got it out of my head. I have big plans for this AU and it seems like we are heading to very perilous waters. Hang on, folks!

I would like to thank all the people who reviewed in the past chapter. You know who you guys are and as token of my gratitude, this chapter is born. The next Hunger Games will be on. Do inform me if you want to see a character as a victor because to be honest, I have no idea who to include *dead

Hoping to see you again at the next chapter. You probably would notice but I will only have Sasuke and Hinata's POV moving forward.

Next up: The Tour


	14. The Tour

**THREE**

**.**

**.**

_**Hinata**_

**.**

**.**

**The Tour**

**.**

.

**011 Suna**

'**I am here to help you make an impression."**

**-Cinna**

"**Shinobi... for those who endure. We have endured enough."**

**-Gaara, Seventy Third Victor**

**.**

Sunagakure is the closest village to Konoha, merely half a day travel away through dense foliage and two hours later, a wasteland of a dry desert. For the second a time of her life, Hinata wishes that the technology is not so advanced that they do not even have the luxury to delay the inevitable. What is the point anyway? Sasuke would have scathingly remarked. But to her surprise, he seems more... anxious than she is.

Which is definitely saying something.

"What did you and the President talk about?" he bursts out the moment that they are left alone to her bunk. The sweltering heat is permeating even the cold air conditioning in the train. The less people in any room, the better. Hinata stares at the reflection on her bedside mirror, not recognizing herself. She glances back at him, brows cocked. The most desirable man in the whole world does not look as impeccable despite the same number of stylists fussing over him.

Sasuke looks gaunt, empty, tired.

Hinata thinks that Sasuke looks more human.

She flinches, perfect, scarred face contorting.

"Nothing." She is aware how apparent it is that she is lying through her teeth. Her fingers shake. Her eyes darting all round in search of something other than her omission to focus on. Sasuke dubiously stares on. "I mean, he came and congratulated me. Went around a tour in the new house... mansion. Asked me a couple of things about my... well-being."

The last words are delivered with some reluctance, a slight pause. Hinata recalls with a shudder that the President hardly sounded like he valued her comfort more than her silence and compliance, sitting on the swivel chair like he owned the place (which he does, she compromises) and talking about blood and war and how he is sure that Hinata would rather not bathe herself of carnage again.

_Would you like to be in a real war?_

He talked about the burnt husk of Uchiha Sasuke's home, about Kurenai's remaining relatives.

Sasuke sighs in exasperation. There is a barely suppressed anger in his obsidian eyes. "Hinata. You are forgetting one important thing. I am a victor too. A fucking victor."

_Kurenai: "You can tell me, Hinata. Victors always understand one another."_

"And if there is anything that I am certain of in this world, which is by the way not a lot, is that the President is too proud to do housecalls. You think that he would take a one day trip on a hovercraft just so he could meet you? He would meet you, one way or another. And the Victor Mansions are all made by the same architect. He hardly needs a damn tour."

Sasuke is losing his composure, a fortified wall of detachment that Hinata once thought is unhealthy for him. Many a time in the past she relished any smile and crack in his infallible facade, any sign that she is getting through the broken, young man. It takes herself being smashed to pieces for her to realize how much she appreciates the ability to feign like nothing matters anymore. For truth hurts those around you and faking a smile hurts yourself.

Separating yourself from reality is in a way like delaying the inevitable.

_Pain is inevitable._

And once again, she was robbed off that luxury.

Hinata bites her lip.

"Did he think of you as a threat?" he asks. And there is panic in his tone.

The girl's silence is enough answer.

Sasuke holds his breath.

"He saw us kiss." She whispers and tears attempt to break out. Hinata bravely sets her reigns. "I do not know. One of the cameras must have been trained to spy on us. But i saw it. And he is not very happy."

"Did he think it as defiance because the whole world thinks you were supposed to be madly in love with Naruto?"

"No." She shakes her head, closes her eyes and lets the tears fall this time. Tears hurts those around you. Tears hurts Sasuke. "He thinks it is defiance because he said... implied that we have no right to be happy. That nobody should be that happy. We killed children, he said. We killed our own allies. We let them die. He said we are worse than scum."

The hypocrisy is overwhelming. Sasuke launches his fist towards the metal wall, beyond frustrated. "Fuck him!" he screams. Hinata winces. "Just damn him! Hinata! You do realize he is manipulating you, right?"

She did. Oh yes, she did. The vile man wants her to grovel over his feet, fear his authority, for her to worship the flames that he leaves in his destructive wake. The man wants her to continue playing the Juliet that is moving on because the Capitol saved her and not because of the Romeo who raised his middle finger up in the air in his last moments. The President wants her to justify and correct the mistake they made by letting her live.

But she killed children, younger than her. And she let Haru and Naruto die.

"But it is true." She murmurs, fidgeting with her comb. She runs her hand on her forehead, eyes closed in the brief flashes of memory where all she can see is blood and war and Haru's dimming eyes and Naruto's smile. No, the President is wrong. She would not see any more blood and war. There is no future tense. She sees them all the time. But the President is right too. She let them all die. She killed them. "It is true."

She thinks of the scripted Victory Speech that she herself helped write, thinks of the two tributes killed from Suna, thinks of blood and war and ignores Sasuke as he proposes to run away because she knows she cannot.

There is no going back.

_A victor is not supposed to be happy._

When Sasuke's family home was set on fire, nobody came on time.

Hinata just does not want to attend another funeral pyre.

...

...

.

**012 Iwa**

"**Everybody likes an underdog."**

**-Seneca Crane**

"**Our will is stronger than stone but it breaks too. When we have enough. When it is too much. I mean, this Games is sure fucked up."**

**-Kurotsuchi, Seventy Second Victor**

**.**

She has killed the Iwa girl, watched as the life vanished from the fifteen-year old girl's eyes. She has watched again during the Interviews, during the recaps and as detached as possible reasoned that it is between either of them and that she did what she had to do. It is nowhere near the most important death in Hinata's decorated track record. Not like the Kumo girl's that made way for a resolution, or the one for revenge with the one from Dream. It is not Naruto's tragic death either. It is just two animals wrestling for survival, desperate to see the next morning. And the cannon boomed in her favour.

So though she has no reason to be, she is surprised by the hostility that welcomed her in the rocky lands of Hidden Stone where standing on a podium, the burly men and muscled woman stared at her with undisguised loathing as the hologram of the two fallen tributes blared beside her.

_The Fallen._

She cringes. Oh, how she cringes visibly.

"Just keep calm." Kurenai mutters from beside her, touching the younger victor's shaking hand. She gently reminds her that this would not be the last time that she will witness this.

Kumo is next.

Iwa are the most ruthless of tributes, even more so than the better trained Kiri. Hinata recalls that one moment that she thought was the end of her when the girl loomed over with a sadistic smile and prepared to snuff the life out of her. She feared her then. She feared these people now. It was sheer luck that the adrenaline rush was best timed in her need for survival. The strength that pushed Hinata to turn the tables against the tribute was surprising. It was an exhilarating experience, something that blinded all reason and the next thing she knew, she had killed.

The corpse is all that she could remember from that encounter.

Hinata thinks she still dreams about it though.

It was human instinct, a struggle between life and death. She once traversed this precarious thin line and perhaps once one did, you never really escape, forever in a cliff between the living and Styx. But Hinata finds that she bears no guilt of this kill. She did what she had to do. She did what any human being would.

But that does not make looking at the girl's family easier.

She rubs her scar self-consciously. Sasuke glances worriedly at her. Nothing seems to be easy for her these days, she thinks bitterly. She has to be careful of what she says, how to act, who to kiss. She has to be careful not to get herself or everyone she loves burnt.

She thinks distantly of the flaming tree that she wore on the chariot ride, the first time Naruto held her hand. Naruto had told her in the caves about the story of Moses, about the man who parted the ocean and liberated a race of enslaved people. She is not sure whether she believes him anymore.

Victors have no right to be happy.

She learns that the Iwa girl's name is Hirono, once a smugly grinning teenager with dark hair and tan skin with muscles only built from years of breaking and sculpting stones. Her specialty had been arm to arm combat, scoring ten back in the prelims and she had five siblings: two girls and three boys. All of whom are younger than her. The father glares. The mother sobs. Hirono's hologram smirked for the last time. And Hinata speaks about glory and honor and how Hirono, had been a worthy opponent and how Iwa had been a formidable adversary.

That better luck next year.

It is designed as a taunt, each flaunting of victory cleverly organized for the villages to turn against each other. if one has two enemies, pit them against one another and you will be safe. The logic is as obvious as daylight but everyone has been dense as the ocean floor about it.

She also speaks about survival of the fittest, the oldest rule in time.

But she does not speak with guilt, does not stray from the well-made speech until the last moment as she watched all the five younger children burst into tears and she realizes that this could have been Hanabi if she had been weaker... no had more courage to just die at that time. She had been like this when Neji died. She would have been like this if it were Hanabi instead.

And she realizes that this is so wrong... so wrong!

She does not stop herself from saying. "I am not sorry that I killed her. She tried to kill me. I just... acted. I did what I have to do. But i am sure that she is in a better place now, somewhere she does not have to train for bloodbaths or mine gold the whole day. Somewhere where she can be happy. Somewhere we can all be happier than we are now."

The script does not talk about pleasant afterlife. The script does not talk about apologies.

The crown stands dumbstruck as the victor openly describes their slavery and misery in a few words. How death is a consolation. How fucked-up and depressing their world is if even a Hunger Games victor is forced to think like that.

They are just children.

"But sometimes, I am sorry that I am not the one who died instead."

The once angry crowd is moved by her sincere words.

This would not be the first time.

And so the silver-tongued victor is born.

The spark burns.

...

.

.

**013 Kumo**

"**I told her that I would try to win. That I would try to win for her."**

**-Katniss Everdeen**

"**Well that sounds horrible. Only one victor left. Well, at least that is twenty-three less lonely people in the world."**

**-Karui, Sixty Fifth Victor**

**.**

The girl from Dream was an orphan, if the fact that nobody stood under her image says something. It made things easier for Hinata who found out unpleasantly that it is best not to look at the bereaved in the eye when you harbour survivor's guilt. But then again unlike Iwa, Yumegakure actually looked apologetic as they welcomed this year's victor. With a wince, she was forced to speak about the old theorem of evolutionism once again. She was not allowed to refer to the killing as it really was: an act of vengeance.

Nobody was supposed to avenge anyone in the Hunger Games.

They were not even supposed to be allies.

But Kumo, as Kurenai had warned, is no better than Iwa had been the first time.

The implication that she was in fact, the real snake that ultimately killed the Kumo girl is subtle, not even officially publicized in the records except when Deidara inadvertently commented about it being clever the first time. But her blood is on her hands nevertheless, as obvious as when she choked the life out of the Iwa girl. Naruto knew. Everyone knows.

Sasuke knows.

But this time, he does not share her anxiety. "It does not matter. It is not like they could do anything to you with the number of peacekeepers stationed around the stage. It is natural for a victor to be hated. I mean, I have been there."

_Victors understand each other._

_Victors are not supposed to be happy._

But this kill, Hinata feels most uneasy about.

They were almost friends... or as cordial to each other as anyone in a survival game could be. She remembers belatedly that she did introduce herself as Noriko. For the longest time, Hinata has detached herself to the point of calling her as ambiguously as she could.

Kumo boy and Noriko had been lovers.

She supposes it should make sense.

They had a daughter too and this momentous information startles her more than the fact that she can already make sense for herself. The nine month-old baby is held by her grandmother, a teary-eyed, gray-haired woman that looked at Hinata with sadness in her eyes. The family of The Fallen is not allowed to speak, to even muster a eulogy to their dead. Only the Victor is granted such right. But deep inside , Hinata knew. Hinata knew that the baby before her is the offspring of her two once-allies, that she is the killer of her mother and that she let her father die.

A cold flame settles on her heart.

She lets it burn.

She speaks of good allies, camaraderie and yet again survival as what the script said. She speaks of lovers, of children and the confession that she is sorry, sorry, sorry and all of those that are no longer in the script. For the second time, she strays from the well-written propaganda and resorts to her extemporaneous feelings.

She looks at the child and feels the fire incinerate all doubts.

And so Hyuuga Hinata finds herself wanting to create a better world for the girl whose parents she had a hand in killing.

...

.

**014 Kiri**

"**Show them how good you are. They just want a good show. That's all they want. If they don't have a bow, then make one."**

**-Gale Hawthorne**

"**Dying is only pointless when you did not have anyone to live for before."**

**-Zabuza, the Monster of the Mist**

**.**

The Hidden Mist is isolated from all the rest of the other villages, a lonely but imposing island accessible only through Capitol-supervised boats. Nobody leaves the island unless for the Hunger Games. Haku once said that you have no hope in seeing the sun unless you are willing to kill people. Even so, he said smiling as he withered away, he was glad that he did.

In retrospect, Hinata realizes that the young boy was not referring to the manmade yellow round glow that they had for their artificial sky in the arena. Haku requested for her to sing and smile as she died. He said that she was bright and beautiful like the sun.

_I finally have a reason to die._

The Mist is a depressing, gray, dingy place and Hinata is struck by the epiphany that this is worse than what Haku told her. And here she thought that the twelve-year old androgynous boy was merely exaggerating. The tower of their infamous Hunger Games Academy looms. Their mayor sits with dignity. But the crowd that grudgingly welcomed her are not the usual overworked citizens she has gotten used to seeing. There is something boiling in the surface, a bigger picture than just the resentment that bubbled because of her victory. Hinata looked past the visage of roughness and there she saw it.

Defiance.

She speaks of Haku as according to the script. Her gratefulness for his company. His worth as an ally. Survival yet again. Better luck next year. But she is biting her lower lip as she does so, wanting nothing more but to thank her friend for being there, for saving her, for making her realize that all is not lost.

And that somehow for some reason, she is worth dying for.

"Say what you want!" one man suddenly exclaims, vaulting angrily towards the stage. The Peacekeepers immediately gang up to restrain him. In face of futility, the man struggles. "Stop reading! That is not what you want to say!"

Defiance.

"Right!"

"Tell the truth!"

"Say it! Tell us what Haku told you!"

"Tell the whole world about our lives!"

And suddenly, the simmering dissatisfaction amongst the audience erupts to a full blown riot.

Defiance.

When Haku emerged as the person the Capitol least expected, he has defied them.

Defiance.

It seems like Kiri is not the most loyal village after all.

They are the strongest village, home to more than quarter of the Games' victors so far. Home of Zabuza who killed all the other tributes. Home of Mei who boiled her own district partner.

_Victors are not supposed to be happy. _

And it strikes her that Kirigakure is not as happy as the rest of the world thought they were.

Sasuke drags her away but the chaos outside rages on.

There is a shot of gunfire and Hinata screams.

Like many things in Hinata's life going forward, this would not be the last time.

...

.

.

**015 Capitol**

"**Why do we have a winner? I mean, if we just wanted to intimidate the districts, why not round up twenty four of them at random and execute them all at once? Hope. It is the only thing stronger than fear. A little hope is effective. A lot of hope is dangerous. A spark is fine as long as it is contained."**

**-President Snow**

"**Victors are not supposed to be happy."**

**-The President**

**.**

They look happy, contented, glowing all smiles as they dance and twirl around the dance stage. The Victors are the image of a success story, the product of Capitol's generosity. The party in honor of Hinata's own victory spared no expense, lavishly grand and majestic. She can barely recognize herself again. She wonders if after all this time, these victors feel the same.

They don a mask like no other did, choosing the fake sense of happiness over the comfortable safety of detachment. Victors are not supposed to be happy. Because even as they pretend to be so, they just end up destroying themselves.

She spies Sasuke dancing with a red-haired, bespectacled Capitol woman, a phony smirk painted on his face. They twist and turn and it looks perfect, the couple of the night. His one eye is trained towards her though and Hinata avoids his worried gaze.

She is instructed to stay on the sidelines, waiting for any Capitol man who would want to dance with her,

She dreads how this night will end.

She has been vacant for more than a minute now, the last nobleman scurrying away in haste after the third song. She thinks he is some kind of politician and is pretty sure he is married now to his third wife—some kind of a supermodel or another. Now free of their grubby hands even for a moment, Hinata allows herself a sigh of relief.

It is beyond Hinata how Sasuke survived this for so long.

She feels the president's eye on her, taking her apart like a prey to its predator. He drinks his wine. She gulps.

From the corner of her vision, something red flashes.

It is not blood, thankfully. But the surprise seizes her nevertheless. Emerald eyes hold hers in a cold, scrutinizing regard, observing her closely. She recognizes him immediately. That handsome face had been everywhere in the past year and she had personally seen him in the previous Victory Tour, as she stood below Neji's holo-pic. The winner of the previous year's Games. The one who survived when Neji did not.

Sabaku no Gaara.

He does not pretend to be charming, like he did during his own Games. Gaara had been as apathetic as he could be, no promise of winning at all and yet here he is. He stares at her in nonchalance, face stoic. But he sounds curious enough nevertheless. "This is your party. Why aren't you enjoying yourself?"

Do you? She wants to demand, feeling peeved. How can one enjoy something like this?

"I am just taking a breather." She says pleasantly, remembering her place. Involuntarily, she feels her face redden at the man's heavy stare. The man who was not supposed to survive a day in a frozen tundra and yet did.

She is aware that this man could kill her with his bare hands.

She feels like he wants too, somewhat.

"You caused quite a stir back there in the villages." He remarks, this time settling himself beside her. His voice is almost a whisper and she realizes that his mouth is dangerously close to her ear. From the corner of her eye, she notices some other Capitol man moving to approach her. But the sight of Gaara makes them falter and they thought twice.

The relief, somehow is incomparable.

"I am not aware that it is even broadcasted." She mentions, remembering from one of Kurenai's breakfast comments that the airing of the victory tour was postponed. It seemed like they have to do major editing.

"Victors know things." He replies, shrugging. "Victors know each other."

There is a glint in his eyes that she cannot comprehend but before she can think about it, Sasuke has already abandoned the redhead and is trudging right towards them.

He does not look pleased.

Gaara is unperturbed. "Sasuke."

"Gaara."

Hinata looks between the two seething man. This is awkward.

A camera flashes. She has not realized that all eyes are now trained to them. The tension is too heavy and she finds that she just want to shrink into oblivion right there and there.

The Capitol witnesses another potential love triangle and this would not be the last time.

...

**(TBC)**

**Beiieve it or not, this fanfic is still alive. As usual, I have been busy but things are looking up now. I am hoping that updates can be more frequent moving forward.**

**I have the mental image of the citizens raising their middle fingers as an act of rebellion (like in the novel and movies itself) but I realized how comically ridiculous that will be. This chapter is meant to be introspective so not much action. I hope you still like it though.**

**Thanks for reading and I am looking forward to see what you think. See ya soon.**

**And oh, Happy SasuHina month.**


	15. The Siblings

FOUR

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The Siblings

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**016 Temari**

"**I think this Games is ironic. Or some kind of a big joke. For the second time of my life, I am reaped and will be participating with a younger brother once again. That's what it's all about right? Our President seems to like consistency."**

**-Temari**

...

She was reaped alongside her own brother. Kankuro had dreams, aspirations, the strong motivation to someday leave the desert and be noticed for his prodigious abilities. He would be a Gamemaker, he had gushed endlessly while studiously poring through a bunch of papers he called his blueprints. Or perhaps he would design the dolls the Capitol loved so much like Sasori did before he became the ageless host of the Hunger Games. But he never managed to step out of the arena when he entered it. Kankuro became like the rest of the other children. The moment that he died in the Bloodbath, Temari had promised herself that she would win. For him. For Gaara who was left behind. It was the easy way out: for Kankuro to die early on. Despite everything, one part of Temari was glad that they did not end up in the difficult situation of having to kill each other. The other was vengeful, angry and swearing to herself that she would never lose anyone to this stupid Games again.

But victors were never supposed to be happy. The President said so, when he crowned her. She could still remember how the words coldly slithered through her spine, the unpleasant jolt his mere presence provoked. But Temari had been too foolish, too naive back then when she refused the President's idea of paying for your "victory" the first time. The following years, it was her little brother who was reaped. Once again, Temari lost someone she dearly loved from the Games.

The Gaara who emerged from the frozen tundra was not the manic-depressive, little brother that she promised to protect, that Kankuro wanted so much to take with him once he "was out of this hellhole". Gaara was a child scarred more than anyone by the world they lived in, the personification of the trauma and wrath they all deeply harboured. When Gaara came home a victor, he was an empty shell- almost aimless, drifting and definitely lacking the passion that once blazed in his pale green eyes. Temari was the one who guided him through his first "client".

It was the first time that she saw her younger brother in so much anguish. His first year as a victor is filled with random mood swings and severe retaliation. Temari had to cover up a couple of dead bodies.

Until one year ago.

"What did you and Zabuza talk about?"

"The future." He looked driven, determined for the first time. There was a maturity in his tone that sounded so wrong, so out of place. Gaara was just a child! "We just thought we have endured enough."

That night after the feast held for the newest victor concluded—Gaara comes in their shared penthouse with an uncharacteristic quirk in his crack lips. Mischievous, Temari thinks while watching her brother plop down the couch and push the power on the holovision. Gaara has a mischievous look on his face. The blond-haired victor never thought she would still be alive the day that Gaara would look like he is gloating about some small prank.

"You look funny." She finally remarks, one eye trained to the screen. Hyuuga Hinata's several kills fast forward into skilfully made successive frames as Deidara drones about the latest darling of the Capitol. She is quite pretty, even with that scar she refused to remove. And she could kill too. Hers is the most interesting Games everyone has seen in quite a while. No wonder Uchiha Sasuke seems to like her so much.

Unrequited love, she scoffs. She saw Sasuke seething once while Naruto and Hinata kissed onscreen. The Avox had to clean up a couple of broken glasses that night. Even Temari knows it is hopeless. Victors are never supposed to be happy. Never.

"She is not so hard to look at, isn't she?" Gaara replies, totally engrossed with the now closeup image of Hinata's victory portrait. He sounds listless, almost intoxicated. Temari is not certain. She never heard him like this before. "I met her in the party."

"So? How was she?"

"Like all of us the first time. Confused. Overwhelmed. Thinking that everyone is out to get here. Uchiha is rather overprotective as well."

"Not surprised." Temari shrugs and watches as the night show breaks momentarily for a series of awful, colourful commercials. Not that Deidara's over enthusiasm is any better. She frowns. "Though you make it sound like you are."

Back still turned to her, Gaara cranes his neck slightly. "Not all victors had the same determination in her eyes, the fire." This time, he turns his head to face her. "Did you hear about what she did in the villages?"

"During the tour? The usual? I saw it in TV but I did not really give it any thought."

"There was a riot in Kiri." Temari's eyes widen in surprise. Kiri is not the most loyal of districts, despite appearances. But still? A riot? "And there is unrest in the other villages too. A couple of them started to withdraw their exports. Of course, Kiri essentially pulled out fish shipments. You might notice that we have a severe deficiency of seafood tonight."

"Are you suggesting..." Her voice trails into a whisper, too astounded to give it more breath. "Are you suggesting that there might be a rebellion stirring Gaara?"

"That was the future I was talking about before."

"What?" But she finds that her throat dry, her jaw trembling too much. Temari could only gape like a fish out of the water, too startled to speak further about the danger this may entail.

"There is just something about Hinata." Gaara plows on, sounding thoughtful as he heaves another sigh. "There is just something about her that could save the world."

Then his eyes go back to the screen, alert.

Temari follows his gaze. And audibly gasps.

Breaking news. New love triangle. Two victors, pining for our Juliette's heart?

"What are you planning?!" she finally exclaims. This is unbelievable. Her brother. Her brother is plotting something that no victor should do.

No victor, nobody should ever defy the Capitol.

"The future." Gaara says. His smile is mysterious and full of the implications that Temari refused to ponder more about.

...

.

**.**

**017 Konohamaru**

"**I want to keep my word but it does not seem like I would be able to protect you like he did after all. Let me give you another one and I know this would be something I can do. I will protect Hanabi. Because hey, I can be a hero too."**

**...**

"No, neechan. Naruto-niichan gave that to you. You were supposed to keep it."

"But Konohamaru-kun—"

"No. You know about this pendant? This is called the victor's charm. Everyone who wore it always wins." He pushes the gem back to her sweaty palms, grinning as brightly as he could. Smiling hurts. Pretending to be fine churns his guts even more. Naruto-niichan is gone. Naruto-niichan is never going back. "Naruto-niichan wants you to have it."

The prettiest girl I have ever seen, Naruto-niichan said. The kindest soul in Konoha. The untainted innocence that Naruto had many a time chickened out from approaching. With the sun behind her, Hinata is ethereal, almost unreal in the beauty she exudes. But her eyes tell a different story from the perfection she outwardly conveys. Hinata came home broken and jaded. Konohamaru does not want to make it worse by breaking down over a necklace.

Thankfully, the girl finally pockets the necklace, though with some reluctance. The glint of the afternoon light refracts the other shiny object from her robes. Konohamaru thinks he saw red and white. Konohamaru thinks he saw the Uchiha crest.

"He talked a lot about you." She whispers. Konohamaru pats the space next to him. Around them, the crafters are just coming from their short break. He probably would not be needed for their little errands anytime soon. The boy fidgets, wipes the sawdust off the soles of his shoes. "He said you need new shoes too." Hinata eyes his feet. Konohamaru chuckles awkwardly.

"I told him to bring me one when he comes back."

The sadness in her eyes is real. It must be guilt. Hinata's eyes are downcast when she mournfully says. "He never got to do that, ne?"

"He never really promised it." He shrugs. "I know. You can buy me one!"

Hinata slowly raises an eyebrow. "Hm?"

Konohamaru dismisses her before she can recover her faculties and predictably say that of course, she will buy him ten pairs. "Naruto-niichan never goes back in his word, you know."

He remembers him, his bright smile. The fist bumps. Uzumaki Naruto is the man that Konohamaru dreams of being.

"I know." Thin, halfhearted smile. Naruto does not need any reason to save anyone but Hinata must have been special to him. For some reason, Konohamaru feels like he actually shares something with this girl. "He did promise me that he would save me, you know"

"No one really needs a reason not to save anyone."

"Unless the cost is your own life."

Headshake.

"I was an orphan." Konohamaru continues. The sounds of working is rampant from behind them as the lumberjacks grunted and the furniture crafters poked and knocked through the logs. It is the world that for as long as Konohamaru has been alive, is one that they all try hardest to survive in. It is a world of deadlines. A world where their happiness is but temporary, is measured akin to the scale that they use in the factory to make sure a worker does not smuggle too much firewood. "I am sure you remember my granddad. Old man Sarutobi, hm?"

"The mayor." Hinata's slight smile is nostalgic, as though she just remembered a particularly fond memory. Everyone is like that with Grandfather. Konohamaru, poor foolish Konohamaru used to mind this. Until... "I remember how much he appreciates beautiful women."

"How could anyone forget? He is a pervert." The boy allows himself a hearty laugh for a few seconds, basking into sweet reminiscence. Hiruzen had been great, the best leader Konoha ever had. His reign had created better tributes, more victors. He never considered this an achievement though. Looking at Hinata. Looking at Sasuke. Seeing Naruto and his last moments in the black and white television owned by old man Inoichi. Konohamaru finally understood why.

Naruto died smiling.

Hinata lived on with the perpetual look of being lost, being death itself.

"I am sure you remember how he died as well."

Hinata nods numbly.

Everyone remembers twelve year old Sasuke volunteering. Everyone remembers Hiruzen vehemently refusing to allow it. Everyone remembers the head peacekeeper being given the orders to gun him down.

For the longest time, Konohamaru had hated Sasuke.

"But he died doing what he felt was right. Naruto-niichan did too. I want to go like that. I want to die a hero someday too."

He pauses and beams as happily as he could to the dumbfounded victor.

"I will volunteer as tribute next year."

...

.

.

**018 Hanabi**

**.**

"**I know I am not supposed to joke about this. But please don't get a matching scar!"**

**-Hyuuga Hanabi**

**.**

The last time there was a victory feast in Konoha was when Uchiha Sasuke won several years ago. Hanabi does not really recall much of it except that it was not as festive as she expected it would be. It is true that Father took home a lavish enough dinner that night, that it was probably the most sustained that they had ever been for as long as she lived but Hanabi also remembered the mourning colours that everybody in Konoha wore as if somebody died. Didn't Sasuke win? Didn't he survive? Did he not bring honor to his family and the village?

Why does everybody have to be so damn sad?

That day Neji was reaped, he had promised. "I will bring honour to the Hyuuga." He was so resolute even then, a man of his word like her late uncle. Hanabi thought highly of his courage, desired to emulate it someday while Hinata inconsolably sobbed in the justice building. Which was why Hanabi did not mind being chosen too.

Until Hinata took her place.

_I volunteer. _

Those words she would never forget.

_I volunteer as tribute. _

Hinata brought home honour to the Hyuuga, to Konoha. She took home with her a feast, the assurance that they would not grovel to the verge of starvation for the whole year. Hinata opened the doors to a victory mansion. But even with her physical body alive and well, Hinata failed to bring back the Hinata who smiled at the littlest things, who saw beauty in everything.

When Hinata came home, she no longer was the sister Hanabi once knew.

That night, she wakes to the sound of panicked screaming. Not for the first time. Hanabi leaps off her too soft bed and rushes along the floorboards that do not creak. This place is not home, she thinks. Even it its luxury. Even its grandeur. The house does not smell like the calming incense she used to take for granted. Hanabi sprints towards her sister's room in haste and is not surprised to see Sasuke already there.

She would give anything to turn back time.

Honour is bullshit.

Winning is a lie.

"Blood. Too much blood." Hinata chants. A couple more other words are uttered in her trembling lips but Hinata is shivering so much that everything sounds intelligible. Sasuke moves away as Hanabi takes her place beside her cowering sister, tracing soothing circles and whispering sweet words of consolation that means nothing. Sasuke looks resigned, his eyes closed. Hanabi feels lost. She wants to cry.

But she has to be strong. She has to be the strong one.

Because if things were different, it easily could be her in Hinata's place. And her sister, her beautiful sister who never gave up, who never took back her word would have as easily done the same thing for her.

"I wish to give part of my winnings to the other tributes." She says the next morning during breakfast. Hinata gives no indication of mentioning what occurred the previous night. And every night plagued with bad memories before that. Her eyes are puffy, her overall stance nervous but there is the decisive note in her eyes that momentarily transfixes Hanabi. Kurenai, who has taken to coming over every other day waits for the younger victor to elaborate.

Hinata cocks an eyebrow. "Is that possible?"

The red-eyed woman's eyes furrow in thought. "It's tricky. But yes, it could be done." She chews some more and there is silence for the rest of the meal.

"You should have seen the other districts Hanabi." Hinata tells her, her voice only above a whisper. She runs her hands through the mown grass, something that the employed gardener attends to every week. Hanabi would have quipped something about getting her pricey, fancy robes in filth but then again, nothing in the Victor's Village ever seem to touch dirt. It's nothing compared to the Capitol, that stupid escort did say though. Hinata did not really say much about her experience. Hanabi did not ask.

It is not like she would want to go there too. After what it did to her sister.

The garden is one of the most beautiful things that Hanabi has ever seen but Hinata hardly ever noticed. She remembers how her sister burned flowers in the arena, muttering something about beauty not belonging to their ugly world.

"It is worse than what Haku told me. It is worse than what Naruto thought it is."

She has heard of the less fortunate districts. Everyone did. But the horror in her sister's eyes gives Hanabi an idea of things much worse than the usual slavery stories that they all experienced.

"Is that why you decided to uh.. share part of your winnings?"

"It's not a prize. It would be wrong to call it that."

Indeed. But Hanabi is not very vocal about agreeing. Is it treason to talk about such things?

"I want to give them hope." Hinata continues. "I want to tell them that I am here to help them. That I could be more than just a face that killed their children. Did they televise what Naruto said is his biggest dream?"

Hanabi's wide-eyed silence must be enough for Hinata to deduce the censorship.

"So the rooftop does not have cameras then."

"What?"

"The night before the Games..." Hinata exhales a deep breath. "... Naruto and I talked. He told me how he wanted to be more than just a victor for Konoha." Her smile is sad. "He told me he wanted to be victor for the whole world."

"But that is—"

"Silly, I know."

Hanabi smirks. "I was about to say kind of, noble."

The younger thinks that Hinata's nod is an approving one. "I kind of want to be like that."

"Now that is silly." It is an attempt to alleviate the tension, to make things lighthearted like Hinata once always did. But when her sister's eyes darken, Hanabi fears that she said the wrong thing. She never has her sister's affinity for tact.

"I know." Manicured finger grazing her scar.

Hands that killed.

Silence.

"Now I understand why neesan and Sasuke chose not to remove that scar. And why Naruto inflicted it." Smile. Hanabi's tone is quiet. "You never looked beautiful without it, I think."

**019 Itachi**

"**Every enemy has a weakness. Just like every arena has one. It's just a matter of you finding it and timing. The best timing."**

**-Uchiha Itachi, Gamemaker of the Quarter Quell**

"... and what is your suggestion Itachi?"

The President is an imposing man even when seated. His fingers steepled, his iconic mask hidden in the lurking shadows of the dimly illuminated room. Itachi shifts from his position, trying his hardest to keep his composure. It is not difficult to do so these days. The President has taken him as his confidante, as his closest advisor. But Itachi has to play his cards right. He cannot afford to take be careless, not when things are in its most crucial stage.

His life, his life as an Uchiha has never been a straight line. From faking his death up to successfully infiltrating the Capitol. It never is easy. But his eyes are clear enough to see the end goal, the ultimate prize after everything is over. Sasuke has to be safe. Sasuke has to live. Really live.

And that means that the one thing that Sasuke continues to live for must be saved too.

"I would propose a special Games." He drawls, leaning back. He adds a small smirk for good measure. "To kill two birds with one stone. A Quarter Quell where we would prove that even the strongest among the districts are of no match against us. A game when we could teach our victors their lesson."

"And how about your brother Itachi?" Reasonable question.

"I have plans."

The plan, the bigger one that would change the world is in fact, already in motion.

...

.

(TBC)

**Interlude of sorts. Quarter Quell will be announced in the next chapter so lots of SasuHina heartbreak. And what's more? Itachi! **

**I admit I sort of jumped ship and moved to another fandom but this story is still my baby. I write it as I go but I enjoy it. I hope you do too. Thanks for reading and tell me what you think! **


	16. The Announcement

**...**

**..**

**.**

**FIVE**

**.**

**.**

**The Announcement**

**...**

**020 Alcohol**

"**Sometimes, things happen and people are not equipped to deal with them."**

**-Suzanne Collins, The Catching Fire**

"**When you guys became victors, I thought you I would be able to retire from this horrible mentor stuff. There was a three of you, for heaven's sake! You make sure one of you comes back! This would be the last fucking time!"**

**-Tsunade**

In total, there are four living victors residing in Konoha. The families of the deceased ones have long since vacated the Victor's Village, bringing with them none of the affluence their victor once held. Without a victor, a clan, though well-distinguished in the community pose no interest to the Capitol. It is a dark reminder that everything in the world is temporary. In death, you would leave nothing. In death, you would be nothing. A mere peasant, plagued by starvation and exploitation definitely is not allowed to leave a legacy. Not even a victor.

This isolated section of the village is a lonely one and in her first morning in here, Hinata heard her sister remark about its eerie air, the stale smell of inactivity and how she missed the town crier's shrill wake up calls she used to complain about so much. It is of no surprise, of course. Tsunade lived alone. Kurenai has never married. Sasuke is an orphan. The President himself had pointed this out when he visited Hinata just before the Victory Tour.

"Coincidence? Not at all!" Hinata never thought herself as the sharpest tool of the shed. Her father used to tirelessly remind her of her shortcomings after all—the limitations she once regarded as weakness. But she was pretty sure, that the sinister tone behind the president's citing of the bone-chilling statistics was an implicit threat.

The orange mask, the red eye that did not look natural... they all haunted her dreams and worsened her nightmares. Naruto's dimming eyes and all the others she had killed have long since faded into the mere hum of subconscious guilt. When she screams in her sleep at night, Sasuke asks her what is wrong. Sasuke demands. Sasuke insists for her to tell.

"It's him, isn't it?" He would shake her so vigorously, so desperately but it is to no avail. "It's him, right? What did he tell you, Hinata? What did he tell you?"

She wonders who had been there for Sasuke, for poor twelve-year old Sasuke when he was given the same, exact threat too. Who was there for Sasuke when the nightmares bare their fangs at night? Who was there for Sasuke when he just wanted to break down into pieces during the day?

_Don't tell me I don't understand._

_Don't fucking tell me I don't understand. _

But the thing is, Sasuke knows too much.

He is a victor too. And victors are not allowed to be happy. She knows that. That man told her so. Sasuke sold his body to save her. Sasuke sold his soul to the world just to let her live. _I wouldn't lose anyone ever again. _But he has already lost her. Hinata has already lost herself. Sasuke should have known that the moment she would step out of the arena, she would be the President's property.

Hinata just does not want him to experience the same thing all over again.

"We can run away." He did suggest. And she remembered laughing hollowly because she had no idea Sasuke is this close to desperation to be able to make an inane joke out of things. Run away where, she did not ask. She knew he would not be able to give an answer anyway.

There is no place to run to.

Victors are not supposed to be happy.

This is the thought that rules her head as she takes the first sip of the warm liquid Tsunade offers her. "Good, isn't it?" The fluid descends down her throat like an inferno of wildfire, the bitter aftertaste lingering on her tongue. Hinata's face scrunches in disgust and Tsunade's laughter is like the most unpleasant song of crickets.

"It gets better." She remarks, swigging another shot. Hinata takes the glass out of politeness but merely puts it down. "Never drank any of these in that place, eh..." Tsunade sounds like she is mocking her.

Hinata takes this into stride with a shrug. "I didn't see any." Which is true. The beverages in the Capitol, all appearing in shades of unbelievably many colours look more appealing than the brown, pungent rum the victor of the forty-seventh Hunger Games spends most of her paycheck for. Hinata can tell. Tsunade's mansion look nowhere like both Sasuke's and Kurenai's.

She momentarily thinks that this courtesy visit has been a mistake. The victor clearly takes no joy in Hinata barging in her personal space. Sasuke has warned her of it. Kurenai shook her head when Hinata told her about her plans of the day. She herself has heard of Tsunade. The shortest Hunger Games. The most ostracized victor.

The one who gave Naruto his district token.

The Victor's Charm, Konohamaru had called it. Fidgety, Hinata fingers the gem around her neck, looking everywhere but the inebriated victor. The mansion is impersonal, gray and too dismal for the expensive but unkempt furniture all around. Tsunade, herself lays slump on the tabletop, lethargic and pitiful.

"It gets better." She moans as though she is in pain. "Drink that, girlie. It gets better. It actually gets better unlike some things I am sure you understand by now."

Sighing, Hinata obediently takes the previously offered drink. The liquid descends in her throat as unpleasantly as it did before but this time, she thinks that she likes the light-headedness it induces. She feels weightless, free and she finds that she craves for one more. Just one more.

A smirk curves on Tsunade's face as she dutifully pours the younger victor another shot. "Told 'ya so." Her slur has not improved but at least, with the alcohol, Hinata finds her company more tolerable. "The boy gave you that?"

Realizing she is probably referring to the pendant, Hinata nods. "At the Games."

"Never watched those. Do you have any idea how many dead kids I have under my conscience? Not including those I personally killed by the way."

She does not bother to answer. Hinata merely drinks the rum as she watches Tsunade listlessly looks at one corner and mutters drunken things that does not make sense most of the time.

But this one does. "You would understand too. Someday. Maybe, you do now. You would understand once you are a mentor too and you try to tell every kid they have a chance even though you know no one wins in the end. You would understand why I do this. You would understand why I let myself rot like this."

Hinata thinks, as she gets the fourth drink herself, that she already does.

...

...

**021 Quarter Quell**

"**It's true. His family doesn't need him. They will mourn him, as will a handful of friends. But they will get on. Even Haymitch with the help of a lot of white liquor, will get on. I realize only one person will be damaged beyond repair when Peeta dies. Me."**

**-Katniss Everdeen**

"**I love you."**

**-Hyuuga Hinata**

Sasuke, for once decided to visit her through the front door.

But he seems to be on a rush because he does not bother with superficial greetings when he immediately implores her. "Turn on the TVs."

"Wha-?"

"They are announcing it today." Sasuke's exasperated sigh makes Hinata want to kick herself for forgetting. Of course. The Quarter Quell Announcements. This year, some cruel twist would be cooked up for the 75th anniversary of the Games once more. They do that every twenty-five years. The first time, they let the districts choose their tributes. It was advantageous for the Career districts. It was an unpleasant act of betrayal that has to be done everywhere else. The second time, the districts were forced to send twice as much tributes. Mei Terumi won that, if she remembered correctly.

What the twist this year would be, Hinata has absolutely no idea. But she knows it would be hellish, all the same. Probably even more so. The Capitol thrives in bloodstains and they get creative in every year that they get their fix on it. They would like to come up with something that would be historical, something that would overshadow her victory last year. They would like to come up with something horrific when she is mentoring for the first time.

It is not too bad, Sasuke has assured her. She does not believe him of course.

On TV, the President is less sinister and considerably seemed more charming than he was when he was spouting warning and death threats. After a series of drum intros and a deafening round of applause that forced her father to turn down the volume, the most powerful man in the world goes into the long speech about The Hunger Games and how it successfully keeps the peace they are enjoying today.

Hanabi yawns and leans back her seat. "This felt like Treaty of Treason Ugly Masked Man Version. I preferred the film they show during the Reaping."

"Shhh..."

"Now, for the 75th Hunger Games..." His visible eye narrows as the camera zooms in. The crowd seems to cheer louder as Hinata involuntarily shivers. "I am certain everyone is excited."

She can imagine him smiling when the audience screamed their agreement.

"I would expect so. But let me give you a bit of a history lesson first." Groans. "Oh, don't be like that. We need those from time to time. Remember, The Hunger Games is a stark reminder that going against the prime authority would only lead to bloodshed. It the symbol of the grace of the Capitol and our unquestionable might. Each Hunger Games reminds that the only way to survive is through being the one we adore. Now, the Quarter Quell aims to remind us about something more. Now, allow me..."

He is charming, Hinata must admit. His words flow so regally that his authority is something that cannot be easily challenged. The President is an enigma of a man. He hides behind more masks that can even be perceived.

"...On the twenty-fifth anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that their children were dying because of their choice to initiate violence..." The large screen behind him displays the citizens lining up for ballot boxes. Children of all kinds are selected. The orphan no one would miss. The little thief everyone wants to get rid of. The spoiled child of the district mayor nobody likes. She wonders if she would have been voted if this were her games. She wonders if Naruto would be despised enough to be sent here by the village he still wanted to go home to in the end. "... every district was made to hold an election and vote on the tributes who would represent it."

A man with no eyebrows was momentarily shown. She hears Sasuke guffaw.

"I don't remember his name." He explains. "But he was from Kiri. The 'Careers' weren't a thing back then. I heard he was chosen mostly because he campaigned for it, posters and all before the election. That's because no volunteers were allowed. He won by tricking everyone he met. It was an interesting show. The man himself died two years ago." His face darkens. Hinata looks away.

"I heard he regretted volunteering."

Sasuke volunteered for his brother too. Whatever his motives, Hinata is yet to gain the courage to ask them. But Hinata does not think she would ever regret volunteering for Hanabi. She would probably regret winning but she would never regret sparing Hanabi from that arena.

Onscreen, the President continues. "On the fiftieth anniversary, as a reminder that two rebels died for each Capitol citizen," Flashes of four tributes standing onstage from all districts are shown. "...every district was required to send twice as many tributes."

A boy, wearing a green vest is shown next. So Mei Terumi is not the one. She is probably the 48th victor or something. But this one is from Konoha. She distantly reminds him of Naruto.

She stares at the familiar necklace around his neck. "Nawaki?"

"He died shortly after." She can tell that Sasuke does not want to talk more about it.

They turn back to the screen and watch as the President talk about the excitement, the various preparations this required. He talks about a new gamemaker and she watches Sasuke tense up when the teasing silhouette of a tall man onstage is slowly revealed.

"He is brilliant. He is talented. And above all, he is creative." The President extends a deceptively welcoming hand. "I present to you... Uchiha Itachi!"

Hinata feels her world stop.

Sasuke's face is contorted to an unbelievable range of emotions, as though he can no longer settle for one. His brother, who he believed is dead for the longest time. Uchiha Itachi emerges and the crowd looks almost as shocked as the Hyuuga household and Sasuke is now.

"Is that-?"

"That's impossible."

"Didn't he?"

Sasuke seems to have gone for the easier but most intense emotion that can be felt. His face is flushed from rage, the uncontrollable urge to spring and find out what in the world is going on. She would have consoled him more, tell him there must be some kind of an explanation about the whole thing if only the words that come out of the President's mouth is not so damning.

"On the seventy-fifth anniversary," He says in the same tone that he used when he conversed her. It is intentional, she can instantly tell. This is a threat. This is the realization of that threat. "... as a reminder to the rebels that even the strongest among them cannot overcome the power of the Capitol, the male and female tributes will be reaped from their existing pool of victors."

...

...

**022 Despair**

"**What is the worst pain? To me, it's always the pain that is present."**

**-Katniss Everdeen**

"**The woman I love? I have a lot of things to tell her. I guess I will tell her once we are in the arena."**

**-Uchiha Sasuke, Quarter Quell Interview**

No one stops her when she dazedly stands up, drops the remote control she has been clenching so tightly and made a beeline to her room. No one dared to knock on the doors for hours. No one dared to call her for dinner she would not have been able to eat anyway. For the rest of the day after the faithful announcement, the house is an eerie quiet that she appreciated. It enabled her to think.

Four living victors. Tsunade, who hopelessly spent her living days with a bottle in her hand and is far from the girl who cleverly manipulated her adversaries to be poisoned. She lets herself rot. She lets herself be remembered as the dirtied, unpleasant victor nobody wants to be associated with. Hinata supposes she understand. Hinata can just imagine how fucked up Tsunade would the world is when she heard about this.

Kurenai is the talented one who probably is still in shape to go back there. She would be calm, like she usually is when she hears of this. She can go back there and still win. She is a Capitol Woman. She knows what they want. She knows what it would take for them to like her.

Then there is Hinata, who just got lucky. Her odds are not so good this time. One chance in three and she would be back again in a place she still see fresh in her nightmares. The crowd would bet on her once more. She would have to fool everyone once again.

And Naruto would not be there for her this time.

_Sasuke..._

Sasuke would be there in the Games. It could not be helped. He is the only male left qualified to be a tribute. Hinata has no doubt he can do it. He can win. She will be the mentor this time, probably. Perhaps, she can return the favour? She can convince everyone in that place to bet on him. Sasuke is great. Sasuke is skilled. You like him, right? You love him, right? If all else fails, she can just do what Sasuke did and...

She does not want to think of that.

This is all if she is not reaped too. Hinata shivers at the thought. One out of three. One out of three. The odds are not on her favour. It never was. And if she is, she can only entrust everything to either Kurenai or Tsunade to at least, save Sasuke. She owes him that much. Maybe she can join Naruto then and beat him up or something for leaving her?

Who is she kidding? She wants to laugh. She probably could not do that.

She is snapped from her reverie when she hears Hanabi call from the other side of the door. "Neesan?" She detests the worry, the unease that her sister projects. Here she is, big sister who must be strong for little, Hanabi. Here she is, breaking down and reduced to the weak creature that cannot even rise and welcome her sister's consolation. Here she is, someone who cannot even stand to tell Hanabi that everything is fine.

She is tired of lying.

She drowns Hanabi's increasingly anxious calls in consuming thoughts of dying, as she lay there on the floor. She ignores her father's call. She pretends not to hear Kurenai's voice asking Otou-san if she is doing fine. Some time in the wee hours of the night, she finds herself looking at her bedroom window, waiting for it to open like it usually does when she feels like she is spiralling down into darkness.

But for the long, torturous hours into the silent night, nobody comes.

Sasuke does not come.

...

...

**023 Brother**

"**I keep of hoping that as time passes by, we'll regain the ease between us, but part of me know it's futile. There's no going back."**

**-Katniss Everdeen**

"**I always thought I would meet a different Sasuke. I knew the one who was on TV was not the real one. That would never be Sasuke. But I never expected him to be like this. I like it. Thanks to you, I guess."**

**-Uchiha Itachi**

The morning after the announcement is when Hinata realizes how much she really does _not _know about Uchiha Sasuke.

She begins breakfast by saying she does not want to talk about anything pertaining to the upcoming quell. Not the announcement. Not her mentorship. And definitely not the thirty-three percent chance that her family will watch her run around the Cornucopia once more, trying to survive. Hanabi's head is downcast, long, dark hair framing her face as she quietly munches half-bites. Hiashi does not even try to ease the dismal mood.

But Hinata breaks her own oath when she asks her father about Uchiha Itachi.

"We all thought he was dead." is the only thing he can offer. His white eyes are blank but bloodshot. Hinata realizes that he must have not slept. It must be a nightmare for him, she decides as she watches her father poke around his uneaten food. Two Games in recent years he has watched his relatives compete. The chances of a third must be a dreadful prospect.

"... I thought he died in Nakano River. The Peacekeepers never found a body, of course but he never struck me as the kind to be friendly with the Capitol. Nor have I heard of a Gamemaker ever hailing from the districts. There is a question of prejudice especially..."

Hinata nods, understanding. She slices the meat but does not have the stomach to eat it. Sasuke will surely be in the Games. Somehow, it is hard to believe a coincidence is at play when you will manage a game your own brother is forced to play. Perhaps, Sasuke can live... Perhaps, Sasuke would be safe.

"I wonder what Sasuke must feel now though. They weren't particularly close, as far as I can recall but he's family."

"They were not close?"

"Sasuke volunteered because he wanted to prove he was better than him. it was the angle he initially pursued during his games." Hiashi frowns. "You don't remember that?"

She does not. If she could help it, she could not be bothered to watch the Games. She was reviled of the practice. She could not stand watching children killing one another for honour, for pride, for something as superficial as victory. This is that telltale once upon a time when she could think of the Hunger Games as no more but through an objective approach. But ever since Neji died, it has been personal.

That is when she started to look at Sasuke.

Sasuke who became more than a figure on the TV the moment she personally came to deliver Neji's letter to her. It was a courtesy the Capitol still allows, fortunately. Wearing dark clothes and rid of the makeup she never saw him without, Sasuke became more than the arrogant man she tried to avoid as much as she could. Hinata had decided then that this lonely, lonely man just needed a friend.

But he never told her his story.

The streets of Konoha is an unbearable exercise of composure. Everywhere she looked is an infuriating reminder of what is afoot and inevitable. She runs away from Ino's sympathy, Sakura's sadness and Konoha's pity. She is not deplorable, she wants to scream at everybody. She can get through this. This is just a test. Naruto wanted to save her. Naruto wanted her to live. That was his wish till the end. They wouldn't dare take even that away from her, right?

She finds Sasuke at the river. Nakano River. She watches ripples stir the calm waters. In a way, she is reminded of her situation now. Everything should be calm. Everything should be as serene as it could be. This development is like the pebble Sasuke skips to the surface. Except being a victor seems more like an eternal quake. Maybe this would never end.

"_You have the same eyes as Neji, the eyes of the person who thought he has lost everything. Neji did not. He still has me. And the whole family. But I know you probably really have no one. But you can have me. I would like us to be friends Uchiha-san."_

"Sasuke."

He does not turn to face her. "You saw him too. Everyone else did. He was fucking introduced by name. How do you think I feel about that, Hinata?"

The anger in his voice no longer makes Hinata flinch. Though she has never seen him like this before, she realizes that aggravating him more questions would be unhelpful. She settles with quietude as she stands beside him. She does not reach for his trembling hand.

"A gamemaker. A fucking gamemaker!" The exclamation is punctuated with another stone thrown. This one strikes water towards them. Hinata blinks.

"I thought he was dead! He left me, Hinata! He left me alone, all this time!"

And she knows this would happen. Sasuke's knees buckle and he sinks to the ground, fists clenched as he muttered. "He left me alone."

Hinata cradles his face in her hands. "It's okay."

"They took him, Hinata. They took him away from me."

"I know. I know. I'm sorry." She wraps her arms around his shaking form. She feels her shirt dampen as Sasuke sobs out for a brother he thought dead. For a brother he thought he would never see again.

For a brother he thought he would never see in cohorts with people he insisted Itachi once despised.

"I won't let them take you too. You hear that? I will not let them take you away."

This time, it is Hinata who holds him when he breaks apart.

...

...

**024 Desperation**

"**If desperate times call for desperate measures, then I am free to act as desperately as I wish."**

**-Katniss Everdeen**

"**I had to do that. That is part of the plan." **

**-Yuuhi Kurenai**

"Promise me. Just promise me! That if Hinata gets called that you would not let that happen! Don't make Hinata go there for the second time. I will go. I will volunteer. I will protect you if I have to. But please, Kurenai, make sure she would not have to go… Make sure that she lives goddamit!"

"Volunteer? There is no need for you to." Kurenai sounds tired but calm. Nothing could ruffle this woman's feathers, it seemed. "It's not like you have a choice."

It is a surprise that the realization just hit Sasuke right that moment.

Hinata, unseen by the two, closes her eyes and waits as Sasuke breathes in and out in an attempt to collect himself. She leans on the door. She has planned to visit Kurenai the day before the Reaping, to let her know that she is fine and apologize for the week that passed that she inconsiderately avoided the mentor. She did not expect Sasuke to be there. He had been a train wreck this past week.

He still is.

"I did not realize that." She hears him say. Then, a creak. Sasuke seems to have finally seated. "I have been thinking about a lot of things lately. There's only four of us living, hm?"

"You are thinking about Itachi, I'm sure."

"Hn."

"I would not promise you anything." Shuffles. Kurenai had stood and is walking around. "I do not want to go back there as much as the next victor."

"But I will protect you. I will make sure that—"

"If you are so resigned to die, then surely you can make sure Hinata lives even when she is with you, right?"

Silence.

Then Sasuke's voice is so soft that Hinata has to strain her ears to pick up what he says next. "Itachi is the gamemaker."

"So?"

"I do not know what he would do."

"You guys really that bad?"

"I don't know." Sasuke sounds like a child once more. Not the one who fiercely hated his older brother for being better at everything. For being so unfailingly kind because he thought he pitied him. This one sounds like the confused child he was in reality when he volunteered as tribute. "Maybe, he hates me for dragging our family into this mess."

"You don't know that."

"I do not know anything." Sasuke's voice is louder now. "But I know Hinata does not deserve to go back there."

"Neither do I."

"Kurenai—"

"There is no agreement between us, Sasuke." Footsteps. Hinata instinctively leaps away and goes back to a position where she can easily pretend that she just came. "You should rest." The door opens. "You should prepare for the Reaping tomorrow... and oh, Hinata? What brings you here?" She looks genuinely startled.

For a second, Hinata is robbed off of words. Sasuke is staring at her, wide-eyed. Kurenai is expectant and waiting.

Finally, Hinata decides to be straightforward.

"I just want to tell you that I can take care of myself." She tells them both as she turns and leaves.

**(TBC)**

**I received an onslaught of reviews from Guests and that got me fuelled for this. It has been more than six months! I am so sorry, H.M Akhlys! **

**You guys are awesome for reminding me that I am awful for keeping this story hanging. I am inspired once more. So I am still alive and will definitely will continue this as long as I can. **

**Thank you so much and do tell me what you think. **


	17. The Retaliation

**.**

**.**

**SIX**

**.**

**.**

**The Retaliation**

**025 Sisters**

**_"Cookies. A pin. I am getting all kinds of gifts today. Madge gives me one more. A kiss on the cheek. Then she's gone and I am left thinking that maybe Madge really has been my friend all along."_**

**_-Katniss Everdeen_**

**_"Live on. You are the survivor this time."_**

**_-Haruno Sakura_**

It is a surprise to find that the hand grasping her shoulders is Sakura's. Though, Hinata supposes she should have known that the moment the strong scent of her own homemade ointment—herbs that can only be found in her garden- wafted into the backyard. Sakura is dressed more traditionally than usual, abandoning her sleeveless outfit to a shapeless robe that did not do much to flatter her figure. But nonetheless, the beauty she exudes is not diminished. The tired lines on her face do not make Sakura any less like the goddess Naruto had worshipped. If anything, it made her more of one.

The goddess of misery. The goddess of despair. Perhaps, Hinata wants to pray to one right now.

"I will leave you two here." Hanabi is there, young shoulders drawn downwards. But she looks older than twelve. Hinata is not the only one who has changed. She tries to quirk a smile and be the hospitable host Hinata always told her she should be as the heiress. But the façade fails and the false cheer falters. "Please tell me if you need anything." Her voice breaks and she hurriedly shuffles away.

Watching the girl's figure disappear back into the Victor's Mansion, Hinata smiles thinly towards her unexpected guest. She hopes she does not look as broken as she feels. "Things has not been great in t-the past f-few weeks. I apologize if Hanabi-chan… Hanabi was a bit too abrupt."

"Oh no. It's fine."

"I'm glad you are doing well." She leads her visitor to one of the garden seats not taken by her abandoned tools and for a moment, thinks about hollering for some tea before deciding Hanabi must have taken the initiative. "How are you-?"

"There will be scarring." Sakura interrupts in a soft, gentle but still clipped tone. Hinata sees her clench her fists. "But I guess, nothing compared to yours."

Self-consciously, Hinata's finger traced the disfigured skin below her eye, feeling the now healed mark made more poignant by the Capitol's technology. Such is the mark of her victory. Such is the mark of Naruto's death in her hands.

_I want you to remember me every time you look in the mirror. _

She never forgets all right.

"He was an idiot." Sakura says. She reaches for the finger and clasps with her warm, warm hands. Sakura's hold is firm and almost reassuring. It is then that Hinata realizes the coolness of her own limbs. Like a corpse. Like death claiming her even before her heart stopped beating. "But he never wanted to hurt you. He wanted you to survive, just like he said you should. He left me a letter all about it. He couldn't…" A pause. A slight strain in her tone.

Hinata does not want to look at the tears, the heartbreak. But Sakura seems to hold it altogether and still encases Hinata's trembling hand to her own warmer ones. Like the strong woman she is.

"He would not stop talking about how he would save you in his letters. How he hoped he succeeded by the time I would read it. It was the only thing that he left for me, besides the memories. He left you with more. He left you with the responsibility to live your life. He wanted you to have a chance at happiness. He was always such a suicidal bastard but he meant well."

In the end, the only person, Hinata realized that could ever comfort her, is Sakura. Because she loved Naruto too.

"Live on, he would say. No matter what happens. Live on the way you deserve to." Sakura's eyes cast downwards. "I know about the next Games. How cruel…"

One out of three.

"But please…"

_Your hands… as much as I'd hate to see them stained but they have to be. _

The Quarter Quell approaches and Hinata finally knows what to do.

_Be careful, Hinata. This is only the beginning. _

"Stay alive."

_The most dangerous part is still coming _

And she realizes that this is her life now. This is the second life that Naruto entrusted her with and who is she to tell herself, it is not worth living?

_I am glad you are here with me. _

_I am glad to die with a friend. _

"I will."

A spark of what Hinata wants to believe as satisfaction flashes in emerald eyes and for a second, she is reminded of blue eyes lighting up the darkness of the cave. "So? Best friends then…?" Sakura's hold tightens, almost possessive and insistent. But Hinata supposes she does not want to lose anything in the Games anymore.

She knows she can never replace Naruto, never in anyone's heart, but she takes Sakura's proffered hand anyway and for the first time since she came back, smiled genuinely. Emerald eyes glitter in the harsh rays of sunlight and it is beautiful.

"I would like that."

Living like one deserves to means leading yourself to the death you also deserve.

"And then from then on, I know that the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games is just the beginning. I have always known but it never sounded so real until now. What do you say so, Hanabi? Is this goodbye?"

Her beloved younger sister is silent and she is glad for it. The comb runs through her dark hair, fingers raking comfortingly through tresses many times violated by her stylists. The simple tending soothes her. She inhales Hanabi's lavender scent in a way a smoker would breathe poison. It is an intoxicating smell of something she would want to hold on forever, but cannot lest her heart break once more. Hanabi smells to much like the home she is not sure she can still have.

In a few hours, she would be onstage again. Name inside the bowl. This time, with only two more to choose from. Thirty-three percent. Luck was not with Hanabi the first time, with only one in thousands. She does not think it would be any kinder now.

Finally, Hanabi speaks.

"I know I am not supposed to joke about this." She can hear the desperation in her sister's voice even before she feels a strong, little arm wrap around her tense body. Hanabi smells like lavender and home and it sends a pang In her chest she does not try to identify. "But please don't get a matching scar!"

She hears it. She has known everybody feels the same way. She is aware of how Sasuke fears it as well.

Hanabi does not expect any of them to survive.

…..

**…**

**026 Resolve**

**_"But I have to confess, I'm glad you two had at least a few months of happiness together."_**

**_-Caesar Flickerman_**

**_"I wasn't even given a chance to say goodbye. I do not want to lose her, Konohamaru. I am sure you can understand how I feel."_**

**_-Hyuuga Hanabi_**

"For the girls…" There is hesitation and somberness in Chikushudo's voice that she did not expect. The orange-haired woman with countless body piercings casts her a look anyone can immediately recognize as apologetic and Hinata knows, even before the words are uttered, that her fate has been decided. "Hyuuga Hinata."

Ten seconds. Every single spectator from the audience wordlessly counts. From where she stood, she can see Hanabi's gasp spiral down to unintelligible sobs and desperation. Hiashi, thankfully catches her in his arms this time and lets her soil his robes with her tears, all the while holding her gaze. Hinata does not know if she can keep at it anymore and the indecision leads her to find Sakura, Konohamaru and all the others horrified and pitying countenance.

No.

_I will be strong. _

She is surprised to find herself being able to manage the pretext. She takes a deep breath and composes herself. She does not look at Sasuke. She cannot look at Sasuke.

_Make them pay, Hinata. _

Naruto's words echo in her ears like an insistent whisper of conscience.

_I am going to die anyway. _

It is not the longest ten seconds in her life. The countdown before her first Games would never be toppled over as the ten seconds that feels long but is not long enough. But the stretch of eternity in this comes second. Kurenai and Tsunade keep their silence. No one dares to volunteer for the Capitol Darling. No one dares to volunteer to come back to the hell that is the Hunger Games.

_I might as well go down with a bang. _

Without a prompt from her escort, Hinata steps forward, finally taking her place as the female tribute for the Third Quarter Quell. She must have been taken aback by the bold move because Chikushudo's forced cheer in proclaiming her does not come out so believable.

"Now, we go to the boys." Hinata drowns out the noise as she tries to keep her tears at boy. She does not hear his name called. She does not notice the unnecessary ten seconds of silence pass. But she opens the eyes she does not realized she had closed the moment Sasuke steps silently beside her.

"I present to you…"

Sasuke hold out his hand.

"… the tributes for the Seventy Fifth Hunger Games!"

And the moment fingers clasp, their alliance is made. She recalls Naruto's words during the parade about safety, as they held hands while burning on fire. That it is just a word, puny like the peacekeepers he could easily evade. And they can fly, like birds out of a cage, without it.

But it is the determination and love in Sasuke's eyes that she finds herself wanting to soar up in the air, all the while feeling the safest that she has ever been.

In his unspoken vow, she hears another promise. Obsidian eyes focusing on her, only her.

"We will go home." And the words alone, said by the deep voice that comforted her through the nights that Naruto's memory would just not leave her alone, drowns out anymore of a ghost's murmur.

For the first time since surviving a death game, Hyuuga Hinata feels alive.

…..

….

**027 No Goodbye**

**_"I don't want you forgetting how different our circumstaces are. If you die, and I live, there's no life for me at all back in District Twelve. You're my whole life. I would never be happy again. It's different for you. I'm not saying it wouldn't be hard. But there are other people who'd make your life worth living."_**

**_-Peeta Mellark_**

**_"If you die here, idiot. There is no point for me in living. Quit thinking I am just your collateral damage. I fucked up as much as you did. Now, let us make sure we will fuck them up with us."_**

**_-Uchiha Sasuke_**

She does not know how she can feel so relieved to not have seen Hanabi after the Reaping.

The peacekeepers immediately flocked them the moment the crowd has raised their hands, all of them joined together, in one testament of cooperation and salute. They roared their support, even through the tears that freely flowed for some. It was the most enthusiastic and most supportive goodbye Konoha had ever given its tributes. It was the most hopeful sendoff the people of Konoha ever had.

And it was then that Hinata realized: it was because Konoha had seen a chance that was never present in the past games.

It was not the huge chances of a victor coming home. Though Sasuke was one of the best fighters the Games had ever produced and Hinata's own victory was still so fresh to gullible sponsors, these sort of things never warranted such coordination and boldness from the once impressionable masses. This was in itself, an act of rebellion. Showing such solidarity was one of the things that the Capitol would never appreciate.

And Hinata and Sasuke caused that.

She is quiet and withdrawn when the faceless and silent guards led her and Sasuke towards the train doors, mechanically taking the steps as her foundations struggled to take what just happened after the reaping, From behind them, there was an unnatural hush that settled, as though the entirety of Konoha just realized how much of a mistake standing united before the Capitol was.

"She will be safe." Sasuke says, one hand clasping her shoulder. "They will not hurt her. Not when she is so important to the drama."

"I am not worried about that." She responds truthfully. The train looks the same as way as she remembers, all shiny things and food before the butchering. She lingers a bit in the train door, watching as the silence of the day becomes an eerie premonition of what is afoot. "She will be fine. He said he would not touch her if I do what he says, if I follow every whim. I just… I do not how to say goodbye."

And maybe she hopes, that she does not have to. That maybe, just maybe, this will not be the last time she will ever see her sister.

"I heard that speech before too. Only that I learned my lesson much too late." Sasuke signals for her to follow to the sitting room. Kurenai and Tsunade would be escorted by the same batch of bodyguards at any moment. He walks with a certain rigidness that betrays his apprehension. He sinks to the same seat he usually took and hooded, dark eyes look at her. "I'm sorry."

An apology from Uchiha Sasuke is as rare as an occurrence can get. Hinata tries not to show her surprise. She takes the seat opposite him. "I do not know what you are apologizing for," One year ago, she has rushed to her room in her tears. It is such a wonder how she can hold herself back now from breaking down.

"I fucked up, that's all." A sigh. Sasuke leans back, chest exhaling the heaviness of his load. "You almost became like me because of my selfishness. They wanted you to go back there. I know that. The other victors do too. They want you to go back there with me. To teach us a lesson. To destroy the image of the hope the people somehow is holding on. I was doing everything to stop that. I did not realize…"

"Kurenai would not have volunteered anyway, as you have discovered yourself. I… understand, Sasuke-kun."

"Naruto made you too fucking special." He laughs mirthlessly. "Pulling off that touching stunt. It was as though he knew you would be speaking against the Hunger Games implicitly and the cameras would not turn away because you are a victor."

_The most dangerous part is still coming _

"I remember him saying some stupid things before you went into your Games. That he will protect you from the enemies from the inside. And I must protect you from the ones in the outside,"

"That does not sound too stupid now, eh?"

A sober Tsunade is a sight to behold. The woman, despite the poisons of inebriation and trauma of killing children after children, has aged well. The lighting inside the Capitol train flatters her natural beauty more than the dank and sinister darkness of her abode. Amber eyes stare sharply at them. Behind her, Kurenai trails like a shadow.

"That is a lot to live up to, Sasuke-kun, hm? Being rivals with a man as dead as a doornail, how low you have sunken." She does not let Sasuke fire back a heated retort because Tsunade immediately turns to Hinata and says. "When you guys became mentors, I thought I can finally retire from this horrible mentor stuff. There were three of you for heaven's sake" She looks back at Sasuke again. "You better make sure one of you comes back! This would be the last fucking time!"

"I think you need a drink, Tsunade-san." Kurenai is as usual, the one person who can keep her cool in the most desperate of situations. She calls in an Avox with one delicate finger, requests for some wine and seats herself down beside Sasuke. "I think we all need one."

There is silence as they wait for the slave to return. It is a heavy one, full with questions unasked and remarks unacknowledged. Hinata fidgets with her sleeves, her cufflinks and her hair. Tsunade mutters something about the Avox taking her sweet time. Sasuke balances the remote on one knee as he presses for the TV to come to life.

Onscreen, Deidara yammers about the upcoming Games. There is a short rerun showing the previous one. Naruto and Hinata holding hands in the parade. Sasuke and Hinata looks away.

"All boring." Tsunade drawls, sounding impatient. She does not try to take the remote from Sasuke. Just one channel anyway. "We cannot really expect them to show us the juicy news now, eh. Bad publicity."

The Avox arrives, with wine glasses and a bottle of one of Capitol's colorful drinks. Etiquette is lost as the servant fumbles. It does not matter, in any case.

Only Tsunade picks up a glass.

Hinata finally decides to ask. "What news?"

It seems like there are a few things more that her fellow victors are hiding.

….

….

.

**028 Symbol of Hope**

**_"The bird, the pin, the song, the berries, the watch, the cracker, the dress that burst into flames. I am the mockingjay. The one that survived despite the Capitol's plans. The symbol of the rebellion."_**

**_-Katniss Everdeen_**

**_"I do not think I can do this but I have to. I need your help."_**

**_-Hyuuga Hinata_**

Of course, they won't tell her that Kirigakure's population is dancing in the threat of annihilation. A riot during the 74th Games was one thing. A full-scale voiceout of discontent is quite another.

"So one of them crossdressing to fool the scanners made them realized that the almighty king Uchiha Madara is not invincible after all."

Sasuke winces. The President's full name is taboo. It has always been. But Tsunade is not one for censorship conventions. She says what she wants. She does what she wants. It is a wonder, Hinata thinks, that she is still alive to say words that would easily convict other people by treason.

But then again, her family probably was taken in her place.

The thought makes Hinata shiver, tremble, no, palpitate out of sheer terror.

"That's absurd." Tsunade says. And Hinata would certainly agree if she has never seen what Haku has accomplished. Though in the end, the mystery of his gender never really worked in his advantage. But the fact stays there: the Capitol did not see it coming.

The Capitol, is in fact, powerless in such surprise attacks.

Tsunade thinks so too. "But at the same time, quite brilliant. It is a statement. The Capitol has always iterated that we are who they dictate us to be. Turns out it is not the same for Haku."

"And Kirigakure?"

"Kirigakure was punished because of it." Kurenai takes over, taking the hint from the already frowning Tsunade. "The Capitol took Haku's action as something Kirigakure has allowed to happen. They did not deny it."

"Did Haku….?"

"No, he was working independently." A pause. "Or, with a little help?" The question is directed towards Sasuke.

"Zabuza." He responds. He looks up and faces Kurenai to the side. "I guess, he is 'chosen' for these Games, then?"

"They have seven other male victors but yes, he did not even need to volunteer. I guess his name is all that they have in the bowl. And in case you are wondering, Hinata, it is the same for you as well."

Of course.

Sasuke stiffens. Hinata sighs.

"And you are chosen because you are a symbol of hope for Kirigakure, a living symbol of their rebellion. They and the… other districts as well want you to live the way not Haku and Naruto cannot afford to anymore. They want you to maintain their legacy, as the two people who protected you and let you live till the very end."

"Hinata protected herself—" _I protected her, _she does not hear Sasuke argue.

"These 'special' people saw something special in Hinata in the Games." Hinata can detect a scoff from Kurenai's voice. She crosses her arms and stares her down, like a disapproving mother hawk. "It might not be true. Hinata might not be the symbol of hope she would be but what happened can be interpreted in several dangerous ways. The Capitol would not take any chances then and then, you have to do that stunt during the victory tour."

_But sometimes, I am sorry that I am not the one who died instead. _

In her mind's eye, she sees the infant whose parents she killed in the Games. The cold flame of determination that settled then. The cold flame she has forgotten and has cooled until now.

"Having a way with words is a double-edged sword." Kurenai continues, eyes narrowing. "It is too late to hold back now. You will be a victor against other victors. You will be a newbie against people who have been friends for years. Just be charming and cute like you were last year and I am sure you can convince them that it is not your intention—"

"No."

She hears Sasuke gasp.

"I want this." She says.

There is a stunned silence among the four victors in the room. Even, Tsunade, busy with her binge drinking, has looked up to her in surprise.

"I am ready." Is all she follows her statement with.

….

….

**029 Competition**

**_"Because whatever happened in the past is in the past. And no one in this arena was a victor by chance. Except maybe Peeta."_**

**_-Finnick Odair_**

**_"You are just one lucky girl, surrounded with many special men."_**

**_-Kurotsuchi_**

The briefing happens the morning they are scheduled to arrive in the Capitol. They would have disembarked at a little past midnight, just like last time. But there was a detour that their conductor did not bother to explain. Kurenai explained that one of the railroads has been damaged.

"Well, that's a first." Tsunade remarks, taking another swig of the purple drink she has in her hand.

"Can't say this Games Is not unique as well." Is all she comes up as a response.

The Reaping from all the other districts is edited and compiled into one important episode of THGN, with some commentary from the hosts. The big difference in this episode is that there is now a substantial wealth of information about each tribute, considering that there are now footages about their previous games being shown to make the audience know who is worth betting for.

On screen, Suna makes it announcement. "That is…. Gaara, isn't it?"

Sasuke does not seem to be too happy that she remembers the name of the red-haired man. Odd and nonsensical for him, because he should know that she would definitely remember the one who won when Neji did not.

A blonde girl stands beside him and Hinata looks at her fellow victors in askance.

Kurenai drones. "Brother and sister duo. Very strong. They won their Games by using their terrain to their advantage but they have some skill in combat as well. But this is unfortunate."

"Why?"

Kurenai shrugs. "Not her first time to be with a brother at the Games. In her last games five or six years ago, she watched her other younger brother killed. She would likely be suicidal now. She would do anything to protect Gaara."

Kumo flashes. A dark-skinned girl beheads a tribute from Waterfall. Another dark-skinned teenage boy swings his sword in stylistic, slow motion. Both of them shown again, much older in the Justice Hall, grinning fiercely.

"Karui and Darui. Dangerous but can be negotiated with. Especially Darui. He can be a great ally."

Kiri are people she is already familiar with. Mei Terumi is a sickle-wielding seductress who won her Games by sleeping with every man who could be charmed. That definitely, would not work now that she was older and nowhere seemed to be in the same glory as she had been. Zabuza, on the other hand, is notorious for killing every single tribute in his Games.

"He Is a creepy guy, that Zabuza."

"And very dangerous."

Iwa features a much younger girl that looks to be only a little older than Hinata.

"Kurotsuchi. Won three years ago. Very, very skilled and has a wide variety of talents in combat. Very confident. She would definitely be one of the victors who would do anything to win."

A very ancient, diminutive man follows after. "And that?"

"… is her grandfather. Who says there is no nepotism in the Hunger Games?" The deprecating joke goes into deaf ears.

"That will be her weakness. She probably would be carrying Ohnoki around even if the old man does not want her to."

"His hips are giving him some trouble. The stubborn old fool tried to hide it from me, of course but it was kind of obvious. I worked in the fucking hospital, my goodness."

_... against people who have been friends for years. _

Beside her, she feels Sasuke squeeze her hand.

"We will go home." His eyes say. Hinata finds herself believing him less.

**(TBC)**

**This is for the guest reviewers who never get tired of reminding me I should be updating this. I have been very busy in the past few months but I finally got the time (and the inspiration) to write. I will definitely have to reread Catching Fire to get the feels back though. **


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